Give London charity stories
North/South London Cares
“I’m the last of my
generation. All the
rest are gone”
“I was just crying, crying all the time,” Maria tells her friend, Rosa,
as she explains what it was like to leave her native Portugal to make a
better life in London. She endured many lonely months in the city before
her five-year old son could join her. “Oh, the homesickness,” she says.
Rosa knows about homesickness too. She
was born in Australia, grew up in Sussex,
and went to university in Cambridge, before
she moved to London to work. “It’s one
of those things that’s really hard to
shake,” she tells Maria.
Listening to these two women share their
stories, you’d think they were old friends.
In fact, this is their first proper chat. They’re
on a visit to the Imperial War Museum
organised by South London Cares, a small
charity that connects elderly residents
of Lambeth and Southwark with young
professionals from the same boroughs.
Maria is 82. Rosa is 25.
Alex Smith was inspired to create the
charity after a chance meeting in 2010.
It was the day of the General Election and
Alex, who later became a communications
advisor to former Labour Party leader Ed
Miliband, was knocking on doors in
Tufnell Park, encouraging people to
come out and vote.
One door was opened by an octogenarian
called Fred. With his hair grown long
and greasy, Fred felt he’d lost his dignity;
he hadn’t been out of his house for three
months. Alex persuaded him to come down
to the polling station. The next day he came
back and took Fred out for a haircut.
“I feel I have a greater insight
into a community and
generation that can often be
overshadowed or overlooked,”
she says. “Everybody has
parents and grandparents,
but I now have lots of them,
meaning I get to hear about
so many more stories.”
Oun is well into his 80s and full of
stories. He arrived in London from India
in 1962 to study graphic design at the
London College of Printing, with £5 in his
pocket and a selection of his mum’s jewels
around his neck. “They called me the
Maharaja,” he laughs.
Walking around the museum and eating
a sausage roll in its café, Oun talks about
his career in advertising (“I was creative
“He sat in the barber’s chair, waxing
lyrical about his past,” says Alex. “He used
to work on cruise ships and loved the Rat
Pack, just like I do.” He owned
a Camden shop that Alex, now 33,
frequented as a boy: “I told him, you used
to sell me stink bombs!”
The kindness of a stranger brought Fred
back to life. But their random encounter
meant a lot to Alex, too. “I learned so much
from Fred that day,” he says. “It gave me
a new connection with my community.
I realized there must be a lot of people
like Fred and a lot of people like me, and
there ought to be a mechanism that could
bring them together.”
The two charities Alex founded – South
London Cares and North London Cares
– now work with around 1,600 elderly
people, whom they respectfully call
“neighbours”, and about the same
number of young volunteers.
They offer numerous social clubs, events and
outings; a project that pairs 95 neighbours
with a young friend; and a winter outreach
scheme that benefits around 500 people.
The two charities aim to help Londoners –
young and old – feel wanted and welcome
in their communities, at a time when trends
director for Miss World”), the time he met
the Pope (“but that was years ago”), his
22-minute audience with Mother Theresa
(“she insisted I sit with her”), and how he
came to own paintings by the Bloomsbury
Set (“I have a Turner sketch, also”).
He shares a mystical story about the day
he returned a book of ancient Sanskrit
teaching to its rightful owner (“The guru
received me on a white throne”) and a
hilarious one about the sofa he inherited
from a deceased neighbour (“Sadly, it
wouldn’t fit through my door”).
Now he lives alone in sheltered
accommodation where the mice are a
problem. But he doesn’t feel lonely. “They
call me the Old Geezer here,” he laughs.
“They offer me help; I tell them I don’t want
any. They think I am too proud, but I like
my own company. And I have the
television and I draw.”
like globalization, migration, gentrification,
rising house prices, and digital living
can seem overwhelming.
“London is the greatest city on
earth. But if you don’t have a
ticket to that party, it can be the
most anonymous, isolating place
you can imagine,” says Alex.
That’s why Emma is at the museum today.
A 23-year-old Kennington resident juggling
post-graduate study in speech and language
therapy with part-time work, Emma grew up
in Devon and moved to London a year ago
after university in Cardiff.
“London was massive, expensive, daunting,
busy, yet empty,” she says. “It was very
easy for me to get caught up in the Tube
rush and become overwhelmed with work.
Volunteering at South London Cares put
everything back into perspective.”
Emma has taken part in games nights,
film clubs, card-making mornings, biscuitdecorating afternoons and museum visits
with her older neighbours. She’s listened
to the neighbours tell stories about
everything from life as a London postman
in the 1950s to how mental health patients
were treated in the 1970s.
Today’s museum visit is Oun’s first outing
with South London Cares. He seems to be
enjoying himself immensely, but admits to
being nervous about coming. Sometimes he
doesn’t talk to anyone for three days. There
are friends he can phone in India, Dubai
and the US, but just one locally, who is
growing increasingly infirm.
“I’m the last of my generation. All the rest
are gone,” says Oun. “My back aches and
my ankles swell. I have diabetes. Everyone
has diabetes now. It is a different world.
I was wondering if I should come with my
walking stick. I thought, sod it, just go.”
It’s a decision he hasn’t regretted. Before
leaving the museum, Oun suggests the
group’s next outing should be to the theatre.
Maria and Rosa look keen.
North/South London Cares
are funded by The London
Community Foundation
Give London
Unit 7, Piano House,
9 Brighton Terrace,
London SW9 8DJ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7582 5117
Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 4020
[email protected]
Give London is an initiative of The London Community
Foundation, registered charity (1091263) and company
limited by guarantee (4383269).
Quality accredited by UK Community Foundations Network
to standards endorsed by the Charity Commission.