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This Is What A Socially Distanced Protest Against Domestic Violence Looks Like
In Birmingham's empty Bullring shopping centre, two protesters met to protest the rise of domestic violence, safely distanced from one another and holding a sign: "home life isn't sweet for everyone". In London's eerily quiet Parliament Square, six protesters gathered safely to hold banners that read, "fund emergency refugees". These seemingly small actions were organised by the 'Some Women Need To Walk' campaign and were heavily backed by 78,000 online petitioners. Despite the extra funds that have been pledged by the government to support domestic abuse victims at this time, a spokesperson for the campaign stresses the importance of keeping vigilant: “There’s not yet any clarity on how much will help the women who need to walk - folks who need emergency accommodation to leave."
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I Run A Mental Health Ward. We're A Coronavirus Frontline Too
James Wyatt works on a psychiatric ward that specialises in treating deaf patients and providing specialist care for a number of different conditions. All the patients are either profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing, and British Sign Language (BSL) is the first language on the ward. Support can not be given to these patients in a socially distanced way. Furthermore caring for deaf patients in the crisis is made even more difficult by the use of masks which obscure one's face, making lip reading impossible and communication strained. Wyatt credits the hard work and resilience of his team for their success thus far in managing the situation and states that "all frontline workers have stepped up – not just on my ward but across the nation". Click the photo to hear more from him.
Coronavirus: Lockdown life 'a challenge' for vulnerable children
Children with additional support needs and their parents can rely on the support they receive at school heavily. Lockdown means vital routines have been disrupted and essential care and teaching help discontinued. Six-year-old Jaxon has autism and would usually get full-time support with learning at school. His mum, Julie is worried he will fall behind on development. Lynn Bell, chief executive of The Love Group - a charity which helps provide education and social care services for vulnerable people, urges families in need to get in contact. She said: "From dyslexia to autism, moderate to quite complex needs and mental health issues - they are all exacerbated by the isolation and a lot of the support can't be replicated within the domestic environment." Read more via the photo below.
Women leaders eschew ‘macho-man’ politics in COVID-19 response
In this time of extreme uncertainty with many understandably feeling a lack of trust in their governments, New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern's popularity is steadily rising. Ardern enforced a nation-wide lockdown prior to any fatalities of the virus. Her daily updates to the public are casual and relatable, holding a Facebook live Q&A on her phone after just putting her child to bed, she shares with us. She apologises for her casual attire before focusing in on the latest coronavirus updates. Furthermore, other female-led countries like Taiwan, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway all have notably low death rates. This empathetic approach adopted by Ardern is nothing new to world leaders, but has been more willingly adopted by female heads. "The problem is not that only women can pull it off, it's that men are afraid to really let their guard down and be relatable", Zoe Marks, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School says. It is important to remember at this time that less than 7% of UN countries are led by women. To read the full artice Click Here |
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