How We Started

Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, we were distributing food and essential household items to vulnerable residents across Southeast London. When the pandemic broke out and social distancing measures including lockdowns were implemented, we ramped-up this service and extended it to a much wider group which included those that were shielding.

It was during our food and essential items distribution services that we realised that a growing number of people from a particular region in West Africa are suffering from loneliness and social isolation. We later learned that this group which descended from the Manor River Union region consisting of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, due to language and other cultural factors could not access any of the support services available to lonely and socially isolated persons. 

Having discovered this, we decided to commission a needs assessment and a feasibility study. The result of these studies led us to develop a project proposal on how we can tackle this problem within the MRU Community. Details of this proposal can be found on this site and is downloadable.