Christmas can be a very difficult time to be in crisis. On top of everyday worries about food and utility bills, there is the added pressure of trying to be ‘merry’! Many people go without at Christmas. Imagine, no Christmas dinner, no decorations, no gifts under the tree and, oh yes, no tree! Families with children find it hard because they cant afford to buy the kids presents and when they go back to school in January or meet their mates they cant boast about what they got for Christmas. Couples at Christmas can find themselves arguing even more than usual as they feel low and go without Christmas treats. Single people are often on their own and can suffer from depression over Christmas.
While we cant hope to solve it all, we do try our best to help. People referred to us will be onward referred to other agencies who can help them, longer term, with whatever the root cause of the crisis is. In the meantime, we provide them with food and, in Christmas week, we also provide special Christmas packs with some goodies to help make life a bit more festive. We also work with River Kids to help the poorest kids get presents at Christmas time.
Providing the services that we do does cost money – not everything we need is donated and we have operating costs too although these are kept at a minimum. If you would like to help us please visit our ‘Give Help’ pages.
