Crisis at Christmas : Yoko part 1

 

Yoko is a student from Japan who has recently joined the SCAN Committee. She has a great belief in volunteering, and before arriving in Newcastle had already joined international camps in Myanmar and in Cambodia. I interviewed her about some of the volunteering opportunities that she has taken on since arriving in Newcastle, and will post them here as 4 separate short blogs.

1. Crisis at Christmas

Crisis is a national charity for homeless people. They have 7 Crisis Skylight Centres in the UK, with one in Newcastle that relies upon volunteers for its energy, its projects, and for making Christmas warm and welcoming. More info here.

I heard about the Crisis at Christmas via SCAN. My last semester finished at the beginning of December so I was looking for something to do.

And here in Newcastle there is a Christmas event to help homeless people at an office in Newcastle so I decided to join.

I joined on Christmas day and Boxing day. And there were so many people coming into the place so I was surprised, because Christmas is the kind of day to stay with your family. But many people joined the Crisis Christmas event and we set out different areas, like café, IT room, clothing store for example, and I was in the IT room to help people who wanted to use computers but actually I didn’t do anything because I think they are more familiar with IT stuff than me!

I had a chat with people coming to the IT room, and actually at first I was a little bit disappointed because it was much quieter than the café, where so many people came to grab something to eat. But now I am happy I stayed in the IT room because I got time to talk with guests in a comfortable way.

Were you on your own there or were there staff, other volunteers?

There was a leader and I was there with 2 or 3 volunteers. Some people are repeaters and some people volunteer for Crisis for the first time - I think it’s half and half.

Did it feel worthwhile, like you helped?

Yes I think it is very helpful, because Christmas is the saddest time for people who don’t have someone to stay with. So last week I went to Crisis again and I heard that 98% of the guests were satisfied with the Christmas event.

Oh, you went back again?

I want to volunteer again – I already had contact with the volunteer coordinator and I'm waiting to hear.

Would you recommend it to others?

I would recommend it. By joining Crisis I developed my viewpoint. At first I had a bias about homeless people. Because I didn’t have any contact with homeless people before and it’s natural to have ideas. But with Crisis, I discovered they really are just normal people. In Japan we have homeless people also, especially in Tokyo : Tokyo is the place where they can get work easily. But I didn’t have any contact with them. This was a first time for me to do volunteering with homeless people.

(photos taken from various Crisis web links)