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Long walk home with SSAFA

Talk about Military Life, Families, Relatives, Wives, Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters and the community.
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salvo17
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Long walk home with SSAFA

Post by salvo17 »

The purpose of this story is giving awereness to a charity that helps men and women related to the army.

When we started and thought about how to produce a blog and execute a text and how we could benefit from working in a strong group with likeminded individuals of different skills that they could bring to the table.
There are six in the class and this project requires six people working in the group, “perfect” said Azimul. A group blossomed and we formed it ready to discuss how we were going to collaborate ideas with to help a charity gain awareness. The group is formed of us six individuals all with an extensive back story and a different story to tell. Let’s start with Azimul, a sympathetic father and a husband. He bought a fiesta just to travel to Swansea for university, dedication and commitment, this is one of many reasons why I know Azimul will contribute to the success of the campaign. Like all award-winning bands, you can’t forget the singer, for us that is Marc, a father and a family man himself as well, he is full of stories and experiences to share but one of my favourite things about Marc, no matter where they are in the league, he will always be devoted to West Ham, for him there is no better team, personally I beg to differ, however his passion is what is admired. Hungary’s answer to Piers Morgan, if there was one, Penka, she’s everything that is great about Hungary. She could outtalk a parrot, she could convince the pope, everything Penka does is with a honest heart and there’s always a motherly female touch to her, she shows willingness and dedication to be part of this group. A true youngster in the group to mix things up, Ethan, being the youngest he teaches us oldies a few things about new era technology so this always is welcomed and is transferable to the campaign. Finally, we have Simran, quiet, reserved, the complete opposite of Miss P. and then what is a noteworthy group without its glue, me of course, all the key fundamentals that a group requires can be found in our six.
The campaign came about through Marc, a man of many contacts. From this source of information Marc had name dropped a guy he knew who had been on the television to raise awareness for his charity. There are many charities in the United Kingdom that support army veterans and the families, such as The Royal British Legion and many others. In addition to the endless list of non-profit organisation that help veterans and their families, a charity that we will be taking a focus point to will be SSAFA.
UWTSDGroup
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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SSAFA is a UK charity, which supports British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and Royal Marines, regular and reserved men, women, veterans, and their families. For 130 years SSAFA supports the Armed Force community, by providing direct physical and emotional support to people in need: Homelessness, addiction, post-traumatic stress, depression, disabilities, dept, or relationship breakdown. Many of these problems come when people must leave their life in the Forces and find it difficult to adopt the social life. Help old veterans with financial support and maintain their mobility to feel independent at their homes. SSAFA doesn’t provide medical, counselling or advocacy support but can help to contact those who offer. Working with other charities and organizations, to make sure that people will find the correct support they need. The charity helps with housing advice, financial support, mental health challenges and trauma, offer Information for younger, older veterans and their families, to make sure they know where to find help when they need it. More than 4000 trained voluntaries who provide face-to-face support to veterans and their families in their neighbourhood, let them know are not alone and are forgotten. The charity helps veterans in Criminal Justice System (VCJS) with advice and information not only to those in arrest, and on trial, but and for their families. SSAFA works in people’s interest without discriminating people, acting with honesty and not making a moral judgement, courage-standing in what they believe, doing the right thing even sometimes looks hard (SSAFA,2021).
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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In this blog I will tell the history about SSAFA. When the Second Expeditionary Force set sail for Egypt in February 1885, Major James Gildea wrote a letter to The Times appealing for money and volunteers to help the military families left behind at home. A fund was set up to provide allowances. Their nursing branch provided community nurses that later was known as Alexandra Nurses that looked after the families of serving men in their own homes in the UK and abroad. Their first housing service was in 1900, that was the rent of twelve suites of rooms in Elm Park Mansions to accommodate officers’ widows and unmarried daughters. At the outbreak of the First World War, the Government called them on to take care of the families of soldiers going to the Front. After five months, SSAFA paid out more than £1million from the National Relief Fund that we administrated, and they had 50,000 voluntary workers. SSAFA was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation in January 1926. After a subsequent review of governance, a new revised Royal Charter and Rules came into effect in January 2014. After calling on SSAFA for help it grew steadily in the 1930’s due to the financial depression. They helped 25,203 families in 1931, comparing with 18,368 families the previous year. In May 1941, SSAFA opened a specific office the SSAFA Overseas Department to deal with the enquiries from serving men about the safety of their families back home. SSAFA provided support to the families of service men injured or killed in the Falklands. Their professional staff ensured that the families gave access to the hospital services like the care available on the NHS. Within months they raised enough money to build and open a six-bedroom home in Surrey near the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headly Court. A second SSAFA Norton House opened in Selly Oak, Birmingham, in 2009 near the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. The home has relocated following the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre’s move to the East Midlands.
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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SSAFA raised £15,346.000 in 2019, this was raised in a variety of different ways such as people running the London Marathon and participating in Tough Mudder. SSAFA openly invite people to contact them with any methods of fundraising that they may have and provide a dedicated section on their website for all your planning needs, the planning section can be found here Help for your fundraising | SSAFA. SSAFA states that donations no matter how small help their charity continue and help ex-servicemen and women all over the country. One person who is going above and beyond for SSAFA is Christian Lewis from Swansea, Christian an ex-paratrooper, who was helped personally by SSAFA after becoming homeless and living in the back of his car with his young daughter is paying back the charity by walking the entire UK coastline. Christian began his walk in August 2017 in Swansea and is still going today, in his time during the walk Christian has found time to adopt a dog called Jet, find himself a girlfriend and they have also announced that they are expecting a child next year. Christian is not only been raising money for the charity close to his heart, he has also been raising awareness, in doing so he has received nominations and awards such as Pride of Britain and Points of Light where Christian received a personal letter from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
salvo17
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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First hand advice
We often take things for granted that will always be a backup solution, sometimes though people are in such a struggling period of their lives that leaves them no way out. A question I proposed to Chris was ‘what would you recommend to someone that was in your situation before starting your journey?’ it’s estimated that 220.000 people has experienced core homelessness in UK in 2019 (Crisis, 2021) of those figures that Swansea has one of the highest rate in Wales (welsh government , 2020).
What Chris would suggest is not to be afraid to ask for help. From his words I can perceive the strength of a man that didn’t give up and the gratitude toward the charity that helped him. ‘SSAFA are there to hep people for that reason. If people didn’t take that help SSAFA wouldn’t exist’. That demonstrates the willingness that SSAFFA reached out and keeps on supporting those who usually have no voice.
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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How did the walk affect your personal life? Christian Lewis answered: “My family and friends were fully supportive and a shoulder to lean on at the beginning. Now because of my walk, my family has grown in ways I would have never imagined”. Sometimes it is hard to find yourself when you feel lost, but seeing the love of family, friends, and strangers, helps you to understand that not all is lost. When you start a journey, you never know what to expect. Mr Lewis’ walk showed how everyone can change their life for the better, and how love, hope and support can change the person. Through the journey, he found his companion the rescue dog Jet, who saved his life, and later he found the most beautiful and amazing woman, Kate (Beattie, 2021). Because of the kindness of strangers and meeting people from all walks of life, Chris’s life became happier, and he is now more at ease with himself. He met thousands of people who have motivated him, adopted a dog, found love, and most of all he is happy and decided to complete his amazing journey (BBC, 2021). Meeting Kate in Scotland, Chris said: “we knew this was going to be forever, it was that simple, the journey has made me the happiest man on the planet, and I am not stopping here” (Harrison, 2021).
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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In this blog I will tell a little bit about Chris’s journey who is one of the members of SSAFA. We as a group of 6 members asked Chris some questions about his journey in SSAFA. The question that I have asked him was that how did he overcome his lowest points, and did he ever feel like quitting SSAFA? He answered that walking o his own at the start of his journey was hard, he added, after his fundraising barely moved for all his efforts made him question if it was worth it. He also added, but mind over matter every pound in SSAFA’s bank helped someone like him.
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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As part of our questioning with Christian Lewis, we asked, “Where would you be without the help of
SSAFA?” “Without SSAFA I honestly cannot see where I would have been. They picked me up in my
darkest hour and helped me back on my feet. I owe everything to SSAFA. SSAFA were me and my
daughter’s guardian angel for almost ten years.” At the time of writing Christian has raised £254,754
for SSAFA this is 2.5 times the original target he initially set of £100,000 and you can donate here
Christian Lewis is fundraising for SSAFA (justgiving.com). Having completed the coasts of Northern
Ireland and Scotland (including its 94 islands) Christian is currently walking south down the east
coast of England and is edging towards London. The hope is that as the awareness of Christian and
his walk grows his fundraising will continue to grow.
If you would like to find out more about Christian and his adventures around the UK, check out his
social media here. Facebook - Chris Walks the UK (facebook.com) Youtube - Chris, Kate and Jet's
Adventures - YouTube
If you are an ex-serviceman or woman and you are in the need of assistance then help is available
on 08002606767, you can also use the live chat feature on the website SSAFA.org.uk.
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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Where do you see yourself and the charity persevering into the future after you finish the walk? What’s next?
One of the final questions we gave to Chris was about the continuation of the charity, once he finished his journey, Chris gave a simple, yet effective reply stated as follows “Even before my walk, SSAFA were going from strength to strength, I would like to think I’ve raised enough awareness for this to continue long into the future.” This response can be cut into two parts personally, the first being SSAFA’s strength which comes in many varying forms, from the countless social media accounts spreading awareness, to the simple layout on their website, allowing easy access to either volunteer, donate, or to contact for other methods of support. The other section of Chris’s response is how he wishes his work will help to maintain consistency of support, which can easily be seen due to him being one of the first faces seen via the website, and alongside this he’s done a plethora of interviews and a documentary with the BBC which since its release has gained thousands of views, as even the trailers which can be seen via sites such as YouTube have mustered up an astonishing 13 thousand views, so whether or not Chris has increased awareness is without a doubt an obvious answer, it’s just hoping that these videos and the messages behind them will continue to increase the awareness, so that SSAFA can further the help distributed to those in need.
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Re: Long walk home with SSAFA

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To summarise this blog as a whole, we have seen the work of six individuals all with their own quirks as stated by Salvo. We then saw a brief insight into SSAFA via Penka with some of the main priories and values of the charity, moving forward marc's research shows how SSAFA is there to support all forms of service, without making any judgements on their actions as they’re willing to help those in need of legal action, and alongside the individual, they also help family members who are dealing with the repercussions of service. We then moved on to see Azimul go into depth about how successful SSAFA has been by providing stories of other interactions. We also then had Simran who explained how Chris himself managed to overcome any negative thoughts of quitting throughout the journey, and how he kept going strong, and is still going as we type. In short, we see two tales take place, the first being how a charity has helped countless people throughout the years, and the second being how one man, made one decision which would cause a butterfly effect of virtue for both himself and others to come.
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