Give us a break…and some heating……please!

I am feeling sorry for myself today – this is not a normal situation for me, it is something I rarely indulge in. This state of affairs has been brought about by the fact that I have a chill, not a cough, or a cold but an old fashioned chill brought on by being too cold for too long. You might wonder how this happens in these days of central heating, insulation, double glazing etc so I am going to share it with you, and vent a small amount of rage at the same time.

I do voluntary work at our local Citizens Advice Bureau – for those of you not in the UK, this is an organisation which has numerous offices (each one an individual charity) up and down the country. Anybody, absolutely anybody can walk in through the doors if they need help and advice on any subject you can think of. This help and advice is given willingly and freely – it is a totally confidential service and we never, ever charge for our help. Most of the staff, like me, are volunteers and give our time willingly because we care about the community in which we live. Funding is a constant issue – we never have enough money to do all the things we would like, it is a full time job to raise the money to keep our doors open.

My role is the ‘techie’, I look after the aging computers on which we depend. I have a tiny office perched on the top floor of an old Victorian building, I don’t have the luxury of a door – the office opens onto a staircase making it a cold and draughty place to be. We can’t afford a heating system because we have barely enough money to keep the service running, certainly not enough for luxuries like a functioning heating system. I spent yesterday trying to work whilst still wearing my coat, scarf and gloves – like most of the staff who were in yesterday. I was frozen to the bone after five hours and could cope no more. Before I left for the day I spoke to our Bureau Manager who was tearing her hair out trying to find some way of getting some funding for a heating system, almost distraught when voicing her great fear that we would lose some of the forty plus volunteers on whom we depend ‘because we can’t expect them to work in these conditions’.

I don’t know how things are in other parts of the world but here in the UK more and more work is being pushed onto the voluntary sector by our government which pays lip service to the work done by the ‘wonderful community minded people’ involved. It seems that if you are a commercial company or organisation, which exists to make money, you can get government and other grants galore for such things as efficient heating systems. If you are a charity – forget it! Because we care, because we want to live in a caring community we do our best in impossible circumstances – can they give us a helping hand with the practicalities of providing this service – No! If you are a commercial money-making organisation can you get help – Yes! How about that for a kick in the teeth for the voluntary sector! Where is the fairness and equality in that? Where is the logic in that? I do not understand how on earth they expect us to fulfil the tasks that are dropped upon us without some vestige of support. It is not logical. It is not fair – and I know fairness and government have nothing whatsoever to do with each other – but I can live in hope!

In the meantime – we will soldier on in the freezing cold, doing our best – but if anyone out there has a heating system to spare, I know a good home for it….