You may decide as a local church that you have the capacity and expertise within your congregation to be involved in some key frontline responses during the lockdown period. If this is so, the first place to start would be to compile an inventory of the various resources that your church has access to. These may include:
Relational resources:
- Relationships with other churches in less-resourced, high-density neighbourhoods
- Residential care facilities for vulnerable people, including children, people with disabilities and the elderly
- People who live on the streets in the neighbourhood around your church
- NGO’s working with various societal challenges, including education, unemployment, housing and spatial justice, HIV and other health-related responses, gender-based violence and orphaned and vulnerable children
Material resources:
- Volunteers and their associated skills (doctors, nurses, social workers, counsellors, people who pray etc.)
- Means of transport available, to transport people, provisions and other material goods
- Finances
- Food
- Soap
- Water
- Hand sanitiser
- Masks
- Hygiene and hand-washing facilities
- Cooking facilities
- Shelter space
Taking into account the needs of those affected, and the resources available to your church, decide on how you are going to help — in other words, formulate your goal. Be as specific as possible, remembering you cannot do everything.
Once you have decided what your church’s contribution will be, create or appoint specialised teams of volunteers, with a team leader, who will take responsibility for the different areas involved.
If your church would like to offer their site/s for use during the lockdown, please click here for more guidelines