March 20th 2021

As the number of deaths around the world from Covid-19 hits 10,000, we are aware of the rising fear this is causing across communities. At the same time, there are those in denial about the seriousness of the pandemic.
This is a once in a century event. The world has not seen a pandemic the likes of Covid-19 for a century, since the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920, which killed tens of millions of people.
#WeStandTogether Director of Operations, Jonny Wineberg, said, “The most important thing for people to do is to keep as calm as possible and listen carefully to the advice being given through government channels. This includes looking after your own health and reducing any vulnerability by slowing down and, wherever possible, self-isolating.
Our priority must be to keep the most vulnerable in our communities safe. That means reducing contact, social distancing and, if needing to shop, doing this calmly and considerately. Only buy what you need and leave stocks for those who have less means.”
#WeStandTogether Chair of trustees, Sir Peter Fahy, urges people to care for each other and be kind and patient. “We have seen so many wonderful examples of kindness in the last couple of weeks with hundreds of people coming forward to volunteer support. That is the sort of example it is important to have in such difficult times.
Unfortunately, we have also seen some people spreading hate and misinformation, especially through social media. We would urge people to correct such ugliness and, instead, share messages of hope, compassion and thoughtfulness.”
#WeStandTogether has organised an online Difficult Dialogue session on ‘Preventing Hate Over Covid-19’ for this Sunday 4pm. Anyone can join at https://zoom.us/j/471447708. We will be looking to organise further such opportunities on different topics in the coming weeks.
These are difficult times but, by people coming together and supporting each other, we will hopefully come through this with renewed empathy and compassion towards our neighbours and as a more cohesive country.
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