Message to the Jain Community from Gareth Thomas MP
I am writing to you following the celebration of Lord Mahavir’s birth anniversary.
I hope that you were blessed to be able to spend time with loved ones on this most
auspicious of days, even if that was via ‘Zoom’ or ‘Skype’ or “old style” phone calls
because of our current Covid-19 lockdown.
We are all learning to adapt as we live through a public health crisis which seemed
somewhat unimaginable until quite recently.
Our understanding of this virus is increasing day by day and I have hope that science
will be able to provide a vaccine to save lives and render this disease an awful
memory. We will, of course, come through this and we are beginning to see the
decline of cases of Covid-19 in some of the parts the world which were affected
earliest.
The Queen
On Sunday evening the Queen underlined how “those that come after us will say the
Britons of this generation were as strong as any”. I sincerely believe that we are
seeing some of the very best of our society as we work together against this common
enemy. Her speech was particularly poignant coming as the Prime Minister Boris
Johnson was admitted to hospital. I’m sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.
Northwick Park Hospital
If ever a hospital could be said to be on the frontline, it’s Northwick Park which I know
is the local hospital to many in the Jain community. Its staff are doing a remarkable
job battling to help some very ill people and not always with the right equipment. I
raised some of these pressures at Prime Minister’s Questions just recently as well as
paying tribute to the staff there.
Supporting our NHS
The brave doctors, nurses, porters, cleaners and wider hospital staff at Northwick
Park and other hospitals are and will be for the foreseeable future on the front and
centre of the fight against this virus. To support them in their work saving the lives of
our loved ones we must do the following:
Stay at home
· Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from
home)
· Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people
· Wash your hands as soon as you get home
I have and will continue to use the avenues I can to fight to ensure that those
working in our NHS have the personal protective equipment they need to keep
themselves, their loved ones and their patients safe.
A message of hope
It is often all too easy to focus on the darkness and fear of the unprecedented
situation we all now face, but I have been heartened by the acts of kindness,
compassion and courage I have been honoured to witness as our communities pull
together and embrace our common humanity.
In particular I have been struck by the large amount of correspondence I have
received from members of the public offering to help and support others throughout
this difficult time. Volunteer associations have popped up in Harrow, and around the
UK, to look out for the most vulnerable in our communities and to support the heroes
who make up our National Health Service at this most challenging of times.
Volunteering to fight Cov-19
Below I share some details of the fantastic response we have seen across my
community of Harrow, but I understand similar groups have been set up in
communities across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
· Voluntary Action Harrow, Young Harrow foundation and Harrow Community Action
are working with Harrow Council to help coordinate a Harrow wide response to the
Coronavirus outbreak and a database is being compiled of people who are willing to
volunteer. Voluntary Action Harrow are using this database to inform people of
organisations looking for volunteers. Please sign up here:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CoronavirusHarrow
· This emergency collaboration of voluntary groups delivered over 300 food deliveries
last week to families currently self-isolating and Feeding Harrow will continue to
provide more meals and food for people in isolation across Harrow in the weeks to
come.
· A group of friends in Harrow started raising money to fund small acts of kindness in
support of London’s NHS staff. They asked nurses, doctors and NHS trusts what the
public could do to help, and they replied by asking for coffee and snacks to help keep
morale high.
These are just three examples of many, of the generosity and resilience of the people
of our country as our nation pulls together to fight this invisible and indiscriminate
disease.
I believe and hope that the innumerable acts of kindness, compassion and courage
which are commonplace in our communities at the moment will lay the foundations
for a society which will be spiritually healthier when this awful disease is finally
eradicated.
We will come through this and I look forward to meeting with my Jain friends from
around the UK when we do. Until then please stay at home, look after yourselves,
look out for your loved ones and if you can please look out for the vulnerable in our
society.
Yours sincerely
Gareth Thomas MP
Chair All Party Parliamentary Group for Jains
P.S. Many of you very generously supported a fundraising drive by Earlsmead Primary
School, in South Harrow, for key IT equipment and books as the new Headteacher
began to turn what had been a failing school around. Thanks to you a cheque for
£5,000 was handed over this time last year by our APPG and just before the
lockdown took effect, I had confirmation from Ofsted and the school that they had
passed their most recent inspection and were officially rated a “Good” school. It is a
remarkable turnaround and one the Jain community’s generosity helped to achieve.
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