Jesus Caritas

Since I retired 9 years ago I have the time to do voluntary work. This means that I can choose what areas of community involvement attract me.

Something very dear to me is giving a hand to those who are working for and with people who are homeless. In London there exists a community of people who are interested in this work or who were homeless themselves. The community is called the "Simon Community". It is made up of both men and women. The number living in the community house varies from 8-10. As you can imagine they need others to volunteer for all their various activities; giving tea and coffee and a sandwich in the early morning - on Sundays and Mondays - soup in the evenings and going out to make friends and chat with those getting ready to sleep on the streets, giving them a hot drink and a smoke if wanted. There are also two street cafes which are both held in St Giles churchyard. Here people can meet and chat, eat and drink something.

Another interest is in Justice and Peace, so on Wednesdays if I'm free I go along in the morning to the Justice Desk in Eccleston Square and help with the office work.

We live on a housing estate off the Hackney Road in a high rise Tower Block. There are 2 tall Tower Blocks and a lot of flats and maisonettes - about 500 families in all, and like all communities of social housing there is a committee to help the community, so I've joined the committee there and it means quite a bit of commitment in the way of meeting together, closing and opening the Hall for groups who want to use the rooms, etc.

I can't finish without mentioning the fact that belonging to a community means that I take my turn at doing the cooking and the other household chores which we share. These tasks also take time and are no longer limited by hours of work; they can be accommodated to other commitments, so I would like to finish by expressing my gratitude to the other members of the community for letting me get involved with these other voluntary jobs.