Himaya Haven received funding in 2020 from Heart of England’s Festive Fund. This funding was secured to provide food hampers for the families they support and some individuals from the community, who were in need of some extra help during the winter. Covid-19 had a considerable financial impact on these families as well as increasing the isolation faced by families of prisoners. The year 2020 had taken everyone away from their families and stopped the visiting of loved ones. Yet, what made it more difficult for prisoner families was the knowledge that as restrictions were somewhat easing, they could not call their loved one(s) 24/7 as and when they pleased, they could not see/visit them in their gardens or in a public place (eg parks), and not all prisons were offering a videocall service either. Where visits were in place families could not hug or touch their loved ones, even though a negative Covid test would have been provided. This situation added to their feelings of distress.

Most of the families supported by Himaya Haven are single parent families with children who face incredible barriers, struggling to make ends meet. With Christmas coming up it was expressed a lot of the families were feeling disheartened this time around, as well as not being able to spend a Christmas visit with their loved ones, which is generally the closest feeling they can get to spending Christmas day with them. Therefore, Himaya Haven felt it was essential to bring a sense of community, happiness and Christmas spirit, during a very difficult period. Since HH had started, they have always made an effort to donate some toys to prisons (for children of prisoners) and with prisons being closed due to Covid-19; they wanted to continue to help the families.

There were many toys and flat-packed cardboard boxes collected by the team, which were put back together by Zobia and later wrapped in decorative Christmas wrapping paper alongside volunteer Nasrin.
All items were purchased, organised  and packed accordingly by our volunteers a few days before Christmas day.

A donation was also received by Highfield Hall Community Centre with extra food items that were also added on.

This project would not have been successful if it wasn’t for the volunteers and staff who dedicated their day from the morning up until the evening (7pm) to help ensure families received their deliveries. This included persevering through the pouring rain, on an already cold winters day. A total of 30 hampers were given to the clients of Himaya Haven and 5 were given to members of the community who were identified as needing extra support.

To encourage spirits even more, the team had held a mini competition via a WhatsApp group of all the clients who received a food hamper, to see who could make the ‘best’ dinner. This had brought a sense of fun and excitement for the women and was something they were then looking forward to.