Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May joined Sewa Day's west London team help deliver care packages to care homes in the local area on behalf of the charity's younger volunteers.
Due to government guidelines on volunteering during the coronavirus lockdown, children have not been able to participate in Sewa Day's efforts to support keyworkers and the vulnerable at this time. But that only seemed to motivate the youngsters to think of innovative and creative ways to do their bit.
Over the past few weeks, young volunteers of the charity have been spending their time designing and crafting handmade packages for care workers around west London and Berkshire. The children wanted to get stuck in and help, and to give their time to society in this hour of need, shares volunteer Tushar Shah.
Theresa May, who stepped down as Prime Minister in June last year and is now a backbench Conservative Party MP for Maidenhead in Berkshire, paid the charity volunteers a visit at Sunrise Care Home at Sonning in her constituency this week. She distributed the Care Appreciation Parcels with the volunteers, thanked the carers for their work during the crisis and passed on the message from the young volunteers that the parcels were a token of appreciation from the local community for their heroic efforts.
Sewa Day has been operating nationwide since the beginning of the lockdown in March with four key initiatives: Care for Carer, Replenish the Foodbank, Help Your Neighbour and Spread Some Joy. They have delivered over 80,000 hot meals, 50 tonnes of food parcels, essential items and entertainment to 100+ care homes, 40 NHS hospitals and 30 foodbanks nationwide.
Along with hot meals, Sewa Day has provided frontline workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) and scrubs, and has been running a national helpline, which is available 24/7.
The concept of sewa, or selfless service, means anyone in the community is free to join in the effort.
by Vidhu Sharma