As we travel through December, differences we live with year round become more striking. Messages of peace, simplicity, comfort and love contrast uncomfortably with news of conflict, poverty, greed and careless commercialism. The Surviving Winter Campaign, now launching its fifth year, reflects in small yet important ways, the best and worst of our humanity.
Surviving Winter is a local campaign which enables people to "redirect" their winter fuel allowance or make a donation to support those in need in our local area.
The campaign is led by three local charities working together: Charity Link, Age UK Leicestershire and Rutland, and the Community Foundation. Together they ensure that all money donated is used well and locally, to help pay fuel bills, fix or replace boilers and provide food parcels and other relevant support to get through the winter. They work with the elderly and with vulnerable families, via a simple informed assessment based on need, and use their experience and links with other charities to bring other help to bear as well.
It is distressing that help is so much-needed. Last winter, Charity Link, which works with families in crisis across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, saw a 500 per cent increase in the number of people who needed their help to buy food – and a 200 per cent increase in those who were unable to heat their homes.
Fifteen per cent of households locally are in fuel poverty. On average, 400 people die each year as a result of cold weather in Leicestershire and Rutland.
Beyond immediate crisis, food and fuel poverty have a profound impact on the health and confidence of those unlucky enough to experience it on a daily basis. And this has an impact on the society in which we all live and work, and on the pleasure and pride we can take in that society.
Yet, against the bleakness of these facts, and the sadness of the human stories behind them, the Surviving Winter Campaign has so far raised £72,000 to support people in our city and counties. It is just one measure of how generous, how active, we can be. If you get an extra £100 landing in your bank account, of course the easiest thing to do is to keep it – even if the money is not of much importance for your own lifestyle. Yet hundreds of Leicestershire and Rutland people have not taken the easy route, and have chosen instead to make the small effort required to direct their fuel allowance, or another similar donation, to someone to whom it is essential.
The gap between those who can look forward to a Christmas of comfort and joy, and those who have to choose between heating and eating, is widening. Just surviving is not enough, but it is better than not surviving, and making a small move to help build a better future for all of us has to be a good step to take this winter.
Tim Stevens is the Bishop of Leicester.
