Feeling useless in the pandemic? Here’s how you can easily help your local community

We can’t all be NHS heroes but there are things you can do to help

Bournemouth bournemouth uni community Coronavirus

With Uni cancelled and the country on lockdown we’ve all got a lot of free time on our hands. Whilst we can’t all be NHS heroes there are other simple things you can do to help those in need without disobeying Boris’ rules too much. Below are a few examples.

Help someone vulnerable with their shopping

Pretty obvious one but there’s loads of high risk people out there who need help with getting essentials. Not just the elderly but people with health conditions. You’ll probably have to queue to get in to the shop but it’ll be worth it when you know you’ve helped someone to eat. You also might meet some pretty interesting people – like the guy I met in a full hazmat suit and mask!

Pick up someones prescription 

Queues are long for pharmacies especially with reduced opening hours. There’s a lot of high risk people who still need their usual medication so this is a really useful thing to do.

Take someones dog for a walk

In all this madness it can be really easy to forget mans best friend. Not only is it a good use of your 30 minutes exercise time you might also make a friend for life in an animal!

Write a letter to an old person

This can be a really isolating and lonely time for the elderly. They’re not allowed out and some of them don’t have any family either, so why not use your extra time to write them a letter? You could learn some pretty interesting stuff, find a local care home and see if anyone out there is looking for a pen pal!

So there you go! Some simple ideas that can make all the difference to vulnerable members of the community and leave you feeling pretty good too.

Further advice on how to keep safe during the Covid-19 pandemic can be found here.