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COVID-19 and Communities: Reflections from a Community Broker

At ActionDignity we believe in a community broker strategy. The community broker strategy engages members of different ethno-cultural communities to work as community brokers and serve as a link between agencies and the ethno-cultural communities agencies are trying to serve.

One of ActionDignity’s community brokers, Fauzia Khedri reflected on how her work as a community broker has been impacted during COVID-19. Read about it in her own words:

COVID-19 opened a new chapter containing unprecedented situations full of uncertainties and fear globally. The start of this pandemic came as a shock. People were suddenly questioning how they could keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Many facing this pandemic are struggling with the new normal of uncertainty. But the good news is that we can adapt and keep learning. The question of how long the world will have to live with the COVID-19 pandemic has lead governments and civil societies to think in terms of global connections, the use of technology in building appropriate resources, upgrading of skills, downgrading material goods and much more.

Besides the negative aspects of this virus, it created some positive and unprecedented actions in communities: a sense of unity and solidarity, more collaborative efforts, and sympathy for fellow humans. Fighting a common enemy, such as this pandemic has put people in the same boat. Our communities instigated different ways of fighting this pandemic.

Countless people in our communities stood bravely at the front line to combat and support thousands of people, who were COVID positive, and their families jeopardizing their lives and those of their loved ones. Our organization, ActionDignity, transformed its activities and initiated new projects to guide, mentor, and counsel communities that were living in a state of shock and despair due to economic, social, health (moral and emotional) impacts of COVID 19.

As a broker of ActionDignity, I have been following the guidelines of this organization to reach and to assist people during the pandemic. Now, we are in a slightly better position compared to the start of the pandemic as we have traveled bumpy roads, experienced the ups and downs, and explored different avenues to see how we could best cope with this situation.

Below is the account of my activities distributing food supplies to some needy families in Calgary.

Written on the evening of deliveries, (March of 2020).

DELIVERY OF FRESH VEGETABLES

This morning, I got the posting about the availability of food donations from the Leftovers Foundation. I went there right away, and I got as much as my car could allow including green onions, lettuce, peppers, spinach, etc. After that, I started preparing a list of the people that I knew were in need including names given to me by community members. My main target was to reach the seniors and newly arrived families who are stuck at home and may have run out of provisions and who are too scared to step outside but waiting for their families to come from distant areas to drop groceries for them.

As the food was perishable, I needed to make deliveries on the same day. So, between 11 am to 6 pm everything was delivered except for a few boxes that I delivered the following day.

In total, I delivered to 15 households: 6 families from Afganastan, 2 families from India, 2 families from Africa, and 5 white families. Out of the 15 families, five families have newly arrived; 9 families are of seniors. Most of these families got their provision of one week or so of vegetables.

In one of my deliveries I faced an old lady in her 80s, she told me that she had almost nothing to eat. I asked her if she needed other things and I left her my phone number. She has her kids in another country and they can not help her as no one can travel.

One of the seniors in my neighborhood had returned from Arizona two days ago and had to self-isolate for two weeks. She had almost nothing at home and could not go out for shopping. I delivered some vegetables and bought some fruits and pasta for her. The following week, I knocked at her door and she happily told me that one of her grandchildren had come from another town and did shopping for them.

Currently, we do not know how many of our seniors are starving or lacking essential things like their medications. In the stores you see very few if any, seniors as they are too scared to step out of their homes; they call this virus “senior killer”. Let’s all pinpoint our seniors who live in our neighborhoods and knock at their doors to find out how they are doing. We can exchange phone numbers with them. Right now, government authorities cannot reach every single senior, but we can. If every one of us can help two seniors that will make a big difference. If we go shopping, we can do the shopping for them.

DELIVERY AREA

The deliveries were done in SE, NE, and NW of Calgary (McKnight area, Falconridge, Coventry, Panatela, Harvest Hills, 52 Avenue, Symon valley, etc.)

One of my deliveries was to frontline health workers. The wife was delighted, and she said that they did not have fresh vegetables for quite some time and told me that it made their whole week.

Another family, the couple and two kids were very sick with flu-like symptoms. He said that they contacted the health line, and they were told to stay in, but at the same time there are not enough test kits to clarify their situation. I asked if he needed other things as he could not go out and he said he needed some tomatoes. I got him some tomatoes from the nearest store with some other fruits and delivered them to him.

Today I learned a lot from my interactions with people. Today’s situation is not like before. We have unexpected situations across the city; you may be rich, but you may starve at the same time. You may be so busy helping others that your family is left neglected, like the health care workers who spend 12 to 14 hours at work.

I am sharing all this with you, my dear colleagues and friends to let you know what I have learned today. In one single day. Today, I had left without breakfast, so I wouldn’t be late getting the supplies. Normally I never miss my breakfast, but today I never felt hungry, thirsty, or tired, although I was alone for deliveries. I was fed with different kinds of emotions all day long. I was wrapped by surprises and joy and from time to time I was drowned in sadness, disappointment, and fear seeing people with sad feelings.

I need to thank those who offered us these donations to help our communities.

OTHER FOOD DELIVERIES

Besides this delivery, I had six other series of food deliveries to families on different dates during the harshest days of dealing with this pandemic. The weight of deliveries was variable; sometimes quite significant and sometimes as small as two boxes of tomatoes. But, each time,  my joy to see the families happy would surpass my tiredness.

THE DATES OF OTHER DELIVERIES

1. April 03rd, 2020 1 to 5 pm, deliveries to 17 families

2. April 15th, 2020, two boxes of tomatoes, deliveries to 4 families

3. April 20th, 2020, 11-2 pm, deliveries to 8 families

4. April 29th, 2020, 11 to 1 pm, deliveries to 6 families

5. May 07th, 2020, 12 to 4 pm deliveries to 10 families

Also, I have gone to the parking lots of Value villages and distributed food boxes to some people living on the streets and panhandlers.

THE 5 x 5 x 5 INITIATIVE

To better support the communities, ActionDignity has developed a network of support through the community brokers. A broker was to contact any five organizations in their community, or partnering organizations, and see how they holding up during the pandemic and if they needed any support from ActionDignity.

Here are the details about the organizations that I approached:

F.O.C.U.S. ON SENIORS

This is a partner organization of ActionDignity and it is serving the seniors of Calgary running numerous projects to empower and support seniors from different ethnocultural backgrounds. Since the beginning of the COVID-19, this organization has been doing tireless efforts to find ways to help the community. March was almost a halt situation as the organization needed funds to start its activities addressing the present situation. It took some weeks until funds were made available. Since then this organization has launched many projects to support the community.

Distant learning is one of the initiatives that connect seniors to instructors virtually.

Calling buddies is the other project where each volunteer is chatting and taking care of five senior members over the telephone. They call seniors regularly and try to have friendly talks with them and to find out about their needs.

As they needed more volunteers, I became part of this project and I was given five names of Central Asians to call and to contact and to find out if they were facing a serious issue and if they needed help. To acknowledge the contribution of its volunteers and members, the organization delivered cheer baskets with fruits and chocolate to their addresses along with messages of gratitude. By the end of July, this organization had the clothing give away event. I was part of this event and promoted it and was there to help in sorting the clothes and installing the clothes racks.

I have been volunteering in all the above events, and along with that, we have started delivering hot plates of food that are offered by Dashmesh Cultural Centre Gurdwara to our seniors. I did two rounds of deliveries and my first delivery day was exactly on the time of NE hailstorm and the storm had just started when I took the Stoney Trail from McKnight Blvd. as I had one delivery to Evanston in the northwest. I was safe from the hailstorm but was stuck in the flood and my children were scared and my younger one was crying. Overall, it was a very memorable experience and I am glad I had my children with me as they will understand and learn what we were doing despite harsh weather.

BAG BY BAG

I contacted Maria Torres, the founder of this organization, and discussed how they were doing. They have been making masks and were offering it for free to those in need. Lack of elastic in the market puts a pause to this job but nothing can make them sit still. It’s good to mention that Maria gave me some fabric masks to distribute to the Afghan Community.

Bag by Bag found another crucial need in the front line. Sewing garment bags for doctors and nurses so that they can transport their contaminated scrubs home for the wash without exposing family members. What a great idea! Hundreds of quilters, tailors, and other women who knew how to sew put their efforts together to make this project a success. Bag by Bag became part of this union to accomplish the common goal of making twenty thousand  22 x 22-inch bags for the front-line workers. I became part of this project and made about 25 bags.

Now, I and Maria, with the support of F.O.C.U.S. on Seniors, will be soon running a project for Afghan women. I will engage Afghan women who can sew to join and take the six-hour training session on sewing fabric grocery bags and then they will be ready for the project. Sewing machines and bus tickets will be offered to them. After the training session is over these women will be ready to work from their homes.

This organization will have some meetings with ActionDignity to broaden its horizon of activities which will make things easier for them to run their activities smoother.

CANADIAN ZALMI SOCIETY

I connected with this organization through Humaira Falak, a program coordinator at ActionDignity. I met the president and founder of this organization, Nasser Khan, in person. We had a good conversation about their activities and future goals, and I discussed my activities with ActionDignity as a broker for the Afghan community. We found some ways that we should work with this organization in collaboration. They donated ten boxes containing food, toys, clothes, and house cleaning materials for the Afghan community, which I distributed during Ramadan Eid to families in need.

This organization besides offering computer classes gives away computers to families and individuals who are in need, especially during this pandemic. ActionDignity can benefit from this opportunity and connect families to this organization.

LEFTOVERS, SAVE ON FOOD

In March of this year, this organization caught my attention as I got an email about their offers. Since then I had many pickups and deliveries of food donations from the side of this organization. This organization is redirecting 6000 pounds of food every single week and they have about 600 users. In 2019, they had 311,602 pounds of food donated. Access to food has never been as hard as during COVID 19. People lost their sources of income due to this pandemic; seniors have had to stay home as they are at most risk if they step outside. This makes the demand for food drastically high. Leftovers is doing a wonderful job of reducing food waste and increasing food access to those in demand.

Also, we need to know that 58 percent of food produced in Canada is wasted which is not acceptable for any responsible citizen. We can start with our homes to stop wasting food and we can teach our children to make it a standard in their lives.

These organizations are our local heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic offering their services to alleviate the severity of this crisis impacting our communities.

ACTIONDIGNITY BROKER – AFGHAN COMMUNITY

I am a broker and bridge to Afghan Community. I have always tried to connect this community with ActionDignity’s projects reaching and addressing their needs. A good example is the Sound Mind Sound Body project where for the first time Afghan women who are with zero literacy in any language, were given a voice.  They received a tailored service of health literacy in their mother language. They received their graduation certificates on March 8, 2020, of this year at the presence of the representatives of Calgary Foundation, AIMGA members, AHS, Mr. Irfan Sabir (NDP) MLA for Calgary-McCall, and many other officials, community members, and staff and brokers from ActionDignity. This was our last public gathering before the pandemic, but it was an extraordinary and significant event in the lives of those women and to myself, it will remain a milestone and a memorable achievement forever.

SEW & CHAT

This was the very first project that was run for Afghan women and I was able to coordinate that project through F.O.C.U.S. on Seniors and it was funded through Arusha. We successfully finished that project. We used the word SEW to bring those women out of their homes for sewing which they love to do,  but also to teach them English vocabulary while sewing. With this project, we could attract many women that otherwise, are not taking part in public activities. Among those women, we found the ones living in Canada sometimes 10-25 years had never been to an ESL class. After the project, about 80 percent of those women enrolled in ESL classes thanks to the guidance and encouragement they received during the Sew & Chat project.

MY FATHER, MY HERO VIRTUAL CONTEST

This year we celebrated Fathers’ Day uniquely and artistically through artistic expressions, done virtually. As soon as we were to contact our communities, I started contacting the community members to find the hidden gems and to invite them to prepare their artwork according to the theme of the contest. I contacted as many youths and families as I could and explained the contest to them. I was a bit disappointed that I did not manage to find 10 to 15 participants, but the result of the contest was excellent as two out of three finalists were from the Afghan community, both from newly arrived families with little English skills. I appreciate the support of their parents and mostly their fathers, who supported and nurtured the talents of their children in a war-torn country like Afghanistan. The best part is that one of the winners is an artist teenage girl who is a painter. Gift cards and certificates of appreciation were mailed to them.

NE HAILSTORM

Recently NE Calgary was hit with devastating hailstorm and damaged properties of Calgarians settled there. I reached out to people affected by this natural disaster which not only created a very heavy burden on their shoulders but also impacted their physical and mental health.

I contacted many Afghan families who were trying to cope mentally and emotionally. Besides struggling economically to make arrangements for the repairs of the damages to their properties and cars. Some families agreed to send me the photos of their property and I shared the pictures with all friends of ActionDignity via email.

We all hope that the authorities will help families get their houses and cars fixed.

I was part of the group of advocates who went to the Legislature Building on July 20, 2020, in the hope of attracting the attention of the government for financial support to families of NE Calgary hit by the natural disaster of June 2020.

To conclude, I add that COVID-19 has impacted everything in our lives. I am much busier than before, despite staying home. I had to start home school my two sons of 8 and 10 and I am looking after my two in-laws, who are seniors and live with me; we are all somehow out of our routines and usual activities. Similarly, ActionDignity like any individual or organization turned its focus on how to better support our different ethnocultural communities helping them in finding ways to alleviate the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will remember these tough periods but what we do to mitigate this situation for families and individuals in our communities who are in need, will reward us by bringing tons of joy and satisfaction. I do believe that we all learn from the present situation and we will be rewarded for any good steps we take. This brings us closer to one another forming a big family containing all humanity. I am glad that my kids are learning how to contribute to their community. I take them with me for some deliveries of donations and we discuss how our efforts, even the smallest, can be rewarding if we combine it with others.

Written by Fauzia Khedri

 

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