It was over 30 years
ago that the song 'The Streets of London' was recorded by Ralph McTell.
I am sure a lot of you can sing it to
yourselves!
In the song most of the people
mentioned were the type of individuals one
could meet on the streets in that era
(gentleman of the road, bag lady etc).
30 years on most of that type of homeless or
vulnerably housed people have disappeared,
to
be replaced by those with less obvious external
problems (mental health, drugs, alcohol etc) but
still in great need and of course
just as lonely and isolated as
those of the previous era.
It is
these types of people we meet on
our monthly
London CityAid run
to Victoria and
they have been joined in the last year or so by many people from Eastern
Europe, something that has been well documented in the national
media.
The problem we have with these men (and a few women) is that we are
unable to communicate with them (apart from at a very basic level), and to some
extent this negates the whole purpose of us going, because we see this as more
important than the food, drink, toiletries and clothing we provide. However,
whatever nationality we meet they still have basic physical needs and we would
not want to deny them that right. So as we continue to go every month we face
some interesting challenges to provide these basic essentials for a
wide range of people and also to try and get to know and help wherever
possible those people that are only too willing to talk with our group.
There is
also a “Soup Run Forum”
in London which includes
groups such as ours, who meet once a quarter, to share ideas and good practice. Recently a survey has been conducted by the forum to determine the number of
groups that do this work in the centre of
London. This has been mainly done to counteract the
claims by Westminster Council, who is in direct opposition to this work as they
feel it helps to perpetuate street homelessness and bring onto the street people
with some form of housing.
The Soup Run Forum found that there were over 30
groups going out in the evening, half of what the Council claimed. It would seem
that as the Council is not going to be able to stop this work, they may be
coming round to the idea that
Soup Runs
