We have continued to support the Roma community during the Lockdown.

Every Thursday we have been delivering food from a local food bank to families complying with the government’s social distancing rules.

We have responded to telephone and online inquiries.

We have continued to pass on vital informations about subjects including the following:

Local lockdown information from across England

Information regarding schools reopening in September

Information from Northumbria Police regarding online scams – these have included the following:

Multiple high progfile twitter accounts hijacked

TrickBot banking Trojan targets UK users

Microsoft Outlook phishing campaign

Sodinokibi ransomware

Phishing email impersonates Zoom notification

Phishing campaign impersonates subscription renewal notification from Microsoft

Phishing campaign exploits enterprise cloud services

Mitigating malware and ransomware attacks

Tesco impersonated in Facebook scam campaign

Vulnerability disclosed in Bluetooth communication protocol

Information regarding free school meals for the summer holidays

Information about changes to Gateshead post Covid-19

We began a Who’s Who Board where local service providers could describe what they do and how they can help people

Some of our funding from Awards for All tis year was originally to develop a Who’s Who Board at the kavarna drop-in, helping clients to learn more about the service providers we work with and how they can help our clients. This has not been possible as the kavrana has been closed since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However we have begun to develop this online now and have had contributions from Northumbria Police and from the Children’s Society regarding how members of the community can still get help to gain EU Settled Status.

We are planning putting more contribitions from other service providers up online as we get them.

Here are some of the things we have been helping people with in July:

We have distributed food from Fareshare
Facebook advise for Universal credit, council tax, housing and issues regarding landlords.
Referral to Gateshead Carers for well being
Referral to children society regarding EU Settled Status.
Women’s group online

Helping people to claim Universal Credit

Helping a family whose new born baby is in hospital

We have applied for a £150 voucher for a schooluniform

We have helped two applications for council houses

We have organised for women from the community to join a self-employed course through the Millin Charity, starting in September

We have provided home schooling material for parents of children from an Roma background. This has included a lot of Key Stage 2 Maths work, including problem solving work and also some Key Stage 1` Maths work. This has been posted on the facebook group.

Due to the Lockdown people are spending more time at home so we have had conversation with individuals regarding domestic violence, that they should open up and reach out if they are experiencing any sort of domestic violence. We have left people with contact details and information to help them.

We have liaised closely with Northumbria Police to help members of the Roma community to know what is happening, during the Covid-19 Crisis.

Many thanks to Fareshare, Northumbria Police, Citizens Advice Gateshead and all our other partners and supporters.

Peter Sagar, Company Secretary, A Living Tradition CIC, and Irma and Zaneta Karchnakova, interpreters and workers, August 2020