Goencho Ekvott during times of COVID in UK
The Goa UK Association reached out to Goans in need during the lockdown across the UK. While we initially remained a green zone our brothers and sisters in the UK were fighting a tough battle with CVOVID. That is when the community got together to help each other. Cafe connected with the association to find out how
NESHWIN ALMEIDA; café@herald-goa.com
MARGAO:
When the world faced a global lockdown across March, April and
May 2020 due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, people were left distressed and in need
of basic food and groceries. We saw a situation of lakhs of Indian migrants
stuck in various states of India and the situation was the same in many parts
of the world. In the UK it was Goans themselves came to the rescue of the Goan
community.“So
basically, getting relief material, groceries and other necessities was easy,
but there were challenges of where to store this relief material and how to
find a network to distribute all this material. And that’s when the Goans
stepped up to help each other,” explained Ravi Vaz, President of the Goa UK
Association.The
Goa UK Association well known for its UK Goan Festival in London which brings
Goan bands and other Goan talent from Goa to the UK and unites thousands of
Goans annually for the festival had now decided to step up and reach out
to distressed Goans in the UK.“
There were Goan families who even picked up relief material, cooked meals and
delivered to a few young Goans who just moved to the UK and needed meals since
they had just come to the UK and were yet to start their work while many others
had lost their jobs during the lockdown,” asserted Ravi.Ravi
explains how Goans working in the hotel industry and were out of work or on
furlough during the lockdown, all came to together, to distribute aid and food
to Goans in Hounslow, Swindon and other parts of London.“ We
reached out to thousands of Goan and a total of 600 Goan households,
distributing food and other aid by storing it in restaurants or stores that
were shut during the lockdown and what we saw was the true Goan ethos if the
Goan diaspora that was visible,” asserted Ravi who puts emphasizes on the
generosity of Goans and Goan associations active in the UK who contributed to
this cause.The
Goan Association UK during the stressful times of the pandemic reach out to
help out Goans during the lockdown critical times reach out to Goans especially
senior citizens who required help with picking up groceries and prescriptions
and younger Goans and their families who were frontline warriors. To cope with
distress the association set up a helpline and involved a network of Goans
who could called or left a message or emailed asking for help or suggesting
Goans in the UK who need help thereby bridging the gap caused by the lockdown
and social distancing while the rules of safety were never compromised thereby
reducing the spread of the virus.The
Association recently hosted a webinar titled “Goans in Britain: The Role of
British and Portuguese Colonialism in their migration and settlement” which was
attended by Goans globally. The Goan Association (UK) is a voluntary organisation
founded in 1966 and incorporated as The G.O.A (UK) Ltd in 1983.The
Management body comprises of Elected Directors and all office-bearers serve in
a voluntary capacity and this has been the case since its inception thereby
uniting Goans in the UK
