REDDITCH was radiating over Christmas and New Year as up to 80 volunteers celebrated the festivities by helping the town’s homeless, lonely and struggling.
Over 11 days the operation, run through the Ecumenical Centre, offered warmth, food and company to people facing a miserable Christmas alone, and a bed for the night for rough sleepers without a home to go to.
Organiser Ben Rafiqi, who helped launch the programme six years ago, said: “Support divided into two fairly distinct sections: During the day time we acted as a drop-in centre for people who are homeless or lonely with no support network and whose Christmas would have been spent on their own, averagING about 30 to 35 people a day.
“In the evening we were running a night shelter for rough sleepers, which took a few nightS to take off but by the end we were accommodating six to eight and it was rather sad to say goodbye to them this week as it means they are back on the streets.”
The entire operation was run and organised by volunteers with donations coming in from members of the public, churches, shops and supermarkets with local schoolchildren filling shoeboxes with goodies and essentials as gifts.
“It was an amazing effort – there is a really wonderful wellspring of good volunteers in Redditch and over the years the project has gradually gained traction with the result that the community has really come together in a big way,” said the former Church Hill resident.
Ben, an evangelical Christian, said he first got involved after seeing the extent of the homeless problem in Birmingham.
Once involved in the city, he linked up with people like the Reverends Robin Baker and Steve Levett back in his old home town and with the help of many others the concept of a Christmas shelter was born.
And he said they were now addressing the hardest part – saying goodbye to clients just at the approach of deep winter – with the launch of a new monthly cafe.
“The aim is to continue to foster those relationships and help people through their problems, linking them up with organisations and services to help them move on,” said Ben.
The cafe will be held on the second Monday of every month in the evening at the Ecumenical Centre. Anyone wishing to get involved and volunteer can visit Radiate Redditch on Facebook.
