breeze50uk
New member
As some of you know I'm a volunteer befriender. What we do is, we get trained for 10 weeks, in the evening or weekends.Then we have a police check done on us to make sure were not serial axe killers or anything like that!
Our supervisor matches us with someone as close as is possible, to suit our personalities and interests and away we go.
This person is someone who for one reason or another is isolated, lonely, depressed or for what ever reason, wants to go out and enjoy themselves but doesnt have the confidence to do so.
Now enjoying themselves, can be as simple as going for a walk or just a cup of coffee. Or even 10 pin bowling or to a garden centre. Whatever suits both of you to do. For a minimum of 2hours every week.
I've been doing this for nearly 2 years now and been in a match for one and a half years.
My wee lady couldnt go out of the house on her own, had the poor me mentality and had learned to be a victim over the years.
She has had an horrendous life up till now but has managed to get the courage, to get away from a very vicious, abusive relationship.
Obviously there are much more details and much more has gone on in her life, but you get the picture.
Now after all this time, she gets a bus into Lanark on her own, she's re-learning her reading and numbers and the following day she goes in again to knit squares and to learn crochet, to send the garments/blankets to the poorer foreign countries. So my wee lady is now a volunteer herself!
Best of all she got her self an application form for a job in a local nursing home! How cool is that?
Yesterday I got a phone call from my supervisor, telling me that he has nominated me as volunteer of the year for the NATIONAL awards!
Then today, when I was over at Healthy Valleys, the organisation who started the befriending project, told me, that they've nominated me as volunteer of the year for the REGIONAL awards!!
Double lol
I am soooo pleased about all this, I never thought that taking a wee woman for a cuppa tea would lead to all this!
Our supervisor matches us with someone as close as is possible, to suit our personalities and interests and away we go.
This person is someone who for one reason or another is isolated, lonely, depressed or for what ever reason, wants to go out and enjoy themselves but doesnt have the confidence to do so.
Now enjoying themselves, can be as simple as going for a walk or just a cup of coffee. Or even 10 pin bowling or to a garden centre. Whatever suits both of you to do. For a minimum of 2hours every week.
I've been doing this for nearly 2 years now and been in a match for one and a half years.
My wee lady couldnt go out of the house on her own, had the poor me mentality and had learned to be a victim over the years.
She has had an horrendous life up till now but has managed to get the courage, to get away from a very vicious, abusive relationship.
Obviously there are much more details and much more has gone on in her life, but you get the picture.
Now after all this time, she gets a bus into Lanark on her own, she's re-learning her reading and numbers and the following day she goes in again to knit squares and to learn crochet, to send the garments/blankets to the poorer foreign countries. So my wee lady is now a volunteer herself!
Best of all she got her self an application form for a job in a local nursing home! How cool is that?
Yesterday I got a phone call from my supervisor, telling me that he has nominated me as volunteer of the year for the NATIONAL awards!
Then today, when I was over at Healthy Valleys, the organisation who started the befriending project, told me, that they've nominated me as volunteer of the year for the REGIONAL awards!!
Double
lolI am soooo pleased about all this, I never thought that taking a wee woman for a cuppa tea would lead to all this!
