End hidden poverty by recycling household items

It is not glamorous and can sometimes be unpleasant but we do it because no-one else will. Community Furniture Aid (CFA) is a fine example of what can be done, on a local level, to help the poorest in society as it recycles unwanted furniture and household items, donated by the public. It works with over thirty agencies including SSAFA, Womensaid, Homeless charities and the local council so as to furnish homes for the poorest in society who have lost everything and cannot afford to buy new or even second hand. With over a million people using Foodbanks, in the last year in the UK, and millions more living below the poverty line, we are now seeing the need for help, not just with food, but with the general household items that many of us take for granted. Hidden poverty is not truly accepted in our society but this charity deals with it on a regular basis. In the 21st century we are still finding children sleeping on concrete floors, houses being flooded but the clients too poor to afford insurance, beds being re-possessed from finance companies and people running away from abuse and having to start afresh. In the last three years this tiny charity has fully furnished 275 houses which were all referred by agencies and saved over 150 tonnes from going to landfill.

All this has been done by gathering up items that the local community were going to dispose of. Whether they changed their bed or ordered a new sofa, emptied a house of someone departed or just had a general clear-out, all the items were gathered and put into packs. In a throw-away society, by taking a moment to think “Could this be of use to someone else”, we could help end hidden poverty and reduce the amount of waste contaminating the country.

One of the latest deliveries found us making up a bed and a five year old saying "what you doing mister?" I explained that I was putting feet on the bed so that it was not on the floor and the child dashed downstairs to tell his mum that he did not have to sleep on the floor anymore. Then we furnished a house for a lady who had suffered terrible abuse and it had taken two years for her to gain the confidence to live on her own again. Arriving with just a bin bag full of clothes, she looked at the bare walls of the empty property and started crying as she did not know how she could furnish the whole house. However, after we delivered all the essential items such as a bed and bedding, storage units, sofa table and chairs, curtains, pictures and kitchen items plus some extras, she was crying for a different reason. She could not believe that people would be so generous and she could start her life again. Another situation arose when an elderly lady had been discharged from hospital, after a long stay, only to find that her furnished flat had been re-let and she was moved into a totally empty property. On arrival we found the lady sitting on a chair, with her zimmer frame, in distressed state as there was no carpet or even light bulbs in the empty flat. Although a care plan should have been in place, for this lady, she had slipped through the cracks and we were there to help at the crisis point. And finally, SSAFA referred a gentleman who had been discharged from the army with PTSD. Shut down and not knowing what he needed, the charity provided everything that makes a house a home, so that he could start his rehabilitation, without the worry of having to source everything himself.

In the current economic climate and the increase in the use of Foodbanks, a network of dedicated storehouses for household items would help ease the burden of the poorest in our society from suffering in silence.