Scotland's communities respond to the pandemic

Big Night In raises millions

Almost £27.4m was donated during the BBC’s three-hour Big Night In event last night, with the government promising to double the total. The show saw Children in Need and Comic Relief join forces for the first time. Peter Kay, Catherine Tate and the Little Britain duo also took part - as did the Duke of Cambridge, who appeared in a surprise sketch with Stephen Fry. The money will go to causes that support vulnerable people around the UK whose lives have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Funds will be split equally between Comic Relief and Children in Need.

Fund reaches out to vital communities

Village shops, an inner-city food bank and a community-owned project on Mull are amongst the enterprises that have been given additional finance by the Scottish Land Fund to help support their efforts during the current Covid- 19 crisis. The projects, all of which have in the past received SLF funding to allow them to take local assets into community ownership, are using the extra money to keep shops open longer, pay fuel costs for volunteers who are delivering food and prescriptions to people who are self-isolating, provide food bank services for people with nowhere else to turn and to check-up on residents across wide-spread communities. A total of 12 grants totalling £69,782 have been given out at short notice to projects across Scotland that are unable to access other support, enabling them to respond quickly to local needs.

Retailers coin it in for good causes

Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat and Nectar customers have collectively donated over £1.5 million to Comic Relief and Children in Need in the past two weeks – a sum Sainsbury’s will match pound for pound. This contribution from customers and colleagues means that a minimum of £3,112,056 will be donated to emergency support for vulnerable people in the UK when the joint appeal to comes to an end on 1 May. Sainsbury’s thanked customers and colleagues for their generous donations to date, and encourages people to continue to give where they can – pledging to match every penny to help as many people as possible. Donations will not only provide vital emergency support to ensure those in need are safe, warm and fed, but will keep them connected in order to combat isolation and loneliness. Those who still wish to donate are encouraged to do so until the end of next week at tills in-store by rounding up their bill to £1, £5, £10 or £15 on manned checkouts or by adding £1, £2, £5 or £10 donations to their basket on self-service checkouts.

Keep Walking the Walk

Breast cancer charity Walk the Walk is encouraging people to support them by taking part in the 2.6 challenge on Sunday 26th April, the day the 40th London Marathon should have taken place. The UK charity sector estimates it will lose £4 billion in income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. * Thousands of fundraising events have been cancelled as a consequence including Walk the Walk’s MoonWalk London, which was due to take place on 16th May. Now the UK’s mass participation event industry has come together to create The 2.6 Challenge, a nationwide fundraising campaign to Save the UK’s Charities.

Ramadan reaches out to communities

Scotland's Muslim communities are marking the holy month of Ramadan at home due to the coronavirus lockdown and are reaching out to feed their local communities. A mosque in Inverness is donating the food it would normally make for worshippers to the homeless and others who need it. The month of Ramadan, which this year started on Thursday evening, is considered the holiest of months in the Islamic calendar and normally sees Muslims fast by not eating or drinking during daylight hours as well as being a time for prayer and reflection. Dr Waheed Khan, of Inverness Mosque, described this year's Ramadan as one that has never been experienced before. "It might put some people off the basic principles of it because they are not in the right environment. It is a big test for us this Ramadan," he said. "The mosque will be empty along with all the things that are of great, great comfort to the community."