Covid-19 relief: 11,500 families benefit from Facebook group initiative

A Dubai resident who created a support group to help needy families during the Covid-19 pandemic is now looking to officially register the group as a charity, after the "unbelievable" response from the local community.
Education consultant Heather Harries originally founded Stop+Help to support students whose parents were stranded outside the country in the wake of travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.
"I reached out to the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) group at the school my kids go to, and several mums were happy to help," said the Welsh expat. "But then we ended up with more mums than kids who needed help."
That gave Heather the idea to start a Facebook group to coordinate what she called a "kindness exchange". Families economically affected by the pandemic could ask for help, and would be promptly matched with those willing to sponsor their essential supplies.
"All we did was handle data between people who needed help and those willing to help," said Heather.
What started with a target group of 50 families has now totalled up to over 11,500 families benefitting from the initiative, she said.
"I never knew there were so many nice people in Dubai," said Heather. "It's quite easy for someone to say 'Here's Dh100'. But this is so much more; people are constantly asking what they can do to help - and that's so different."
As a result, Stop+Help now has about 75 dedicated professionals who've offered to support the initiative in various personal capacities. The group has even launched a student ambassador programme to give students a chance to help their community over the summer.
"People have lost jobs but they're still willing to give to other people in need. Everyone is having a hard time, and everyone has had to adjust, but you can't put a price on humanity. Despite the pandemic, a lot of community kindness has been generated."
The group does not handle items directly nor does it accept donations in cash. Instead, they send sponsors the details of the family in need, and the benefactors then order the supplies directly to the family's address via online shopping.
"It works out great, because we can limit the spread of Covid-19 by not having direct exchanges," said Heather. "We reckon about Dh9,000 worth of kind acts have gone out so far."

The community response has spurred the resident to seriously consider expanding the initiative to cover more social issues - and making it all official.

"We've all worked so hard in the last few months. What would be awful is to have what we've done get lost," she said.

"We want to be around for any family with a short-term crisis, and we want to grow to be able to address the many social issues that people face in the areas of financial crisis, mental health, equal opportunities for children and so much more."
karen@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Dubai

Karen Ann Monsy

Karen Ann Monsy is Associate Editor, overseeing digital operations in the newsroom. She sees the world through headlines and SEO keywords - and loves building people and teams.

karen@khaleejtimes.com