Family wellbeing hubs set up to support children, young people and families at the beginning of COVID are continuing to work together to support children and young people.
Aberdeen FC Community Trust (AFCCT) was part of the multi-agency team working in the hubs with early years practitioners, PSAs, social workers, youth workers, family learning workers, teachers, community learning, creative learning, ACE Voices, Sport Aberdeen, librarians, music specialists, Aberdeen Play Forum, other partner agencies and volunteers.
One of these wonderful volunteers was Lisa Scott who supported the delivery of Food 'n' Fun at Tillydrone Community Campus during the summer holidays, and one of the ripple effects of collective kindness to come from the hubs is a spontaneous partnership between AFCCT, Lisa Scott and a youth group in Kenya.
As part of their wider hub contributions, AFCCT kindly donated football kits, stationery and toys, and much of these went to the children and young people in Aberdeen. However, the donations were so large that we were also able to pass on the excess to Lisa who supports many families and communities through her own personal endeavours in Kenya, Uganda and India.
Over the years, she has built up very trusted relationships with people in these countries, is not part of an organisation, and funds/sources all her mission trips, donations and shipping costs herself. The enthusiasm, passion and commitment she brings to this work is so commendable! This time, she sent the spare football kits from AFCCT to a youth group she supports in Kenya (please see the photo accompanying the article of this wonderful group of young men proudly wearing their AFC shorts), and here are some of Lisa's own words:
"These donations really are so valuable to these kids who have nothing. It is irrelevant to them if kits are out of season and with the kits being high quality, they will last years for them, being passed down to siblings etc. Many of the kids are in rags with no shoes, many live in slums, so these bright kits, made with such great material is so great for them. Also, there is an unlimited need as when in the villages there are so many kids as parents still have very large families, 8-13 kids, so when we were distributing in Uganda, there were many kids who received nothing, which was sad. I cannot thank you enough as this really is such a blessing to these kids."
Although the first hub chapter came to an end when schools returned in August, plans are starting to emerge from these earlier experiences for a new hub programme for families called 'Fit Like Aberdeen', so these exciting multi-disciplinary partnerships formed during a time of crisis may continue to grow and grow in inspiring and often unexpected ways!
This story is a fantastic example of the countless acts of compassion and generosity coming to the fore especially during this time of COVID, and who knows what seeds may have been sown from this collective kindness!
