Member News: The Children's Family Trust - Volunteering this Christmas with Zarach

One teacher and her mates trying to make sure kids in the UK have a bed.

That’s how Zarach describe their mission online, a group of exceptional people working tirelessly to ensure children across yorkshire have a bed to sleep on.

As an organisation comprised of devoted social workers, who see firsthand the struggles families are facing, it was a no-brainer for our West Yorshire team to get involved and do something practical to assist in these trying times.

Anne-Marie, Registered Manager for our Yorkshire region said:

"As Social Worker’s we are all too aware of the extreme poverty that families experience day to day, however at Christmas and in the colder months the challenges for families become even greater.

The opportunity to spend the morning with the wonderful charity Zarach really emphasised the reality of what many families across the Yorkshire region are facing and highlighted how much they rely on the generosity of members of the public and charitable organisations such as this to meet theirs and their Childrens basic needs."

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With every referral to Zarach, there is a young person in desperate need of basic requirements that so many of us take for granted. The impact on self-esteem, education, friendships and their health could have lasting effects as they traverse adulthood.

To make a difference is to improve the prospects of young people not just their present situations.

Senior supervising social worker Becci said:

I wanted to get involved in supporting Zarach as they do so much for the local community not only in Leeds but the surrounding areas such as Kirklees and Wakefield where we are based. I was a LASW for years within these communities and it was really sad when we went to homes where children had hardly anything and parents were in difficult situations. The reason I became a social worker was to help people and keep children and families together.

We all know the problems people are facing this winter where they’re having to choose between feeding their children or heating their homes, we wanted to try and help where we could.

On Tuesday the team put toghether Winter warmer packages, food/hygiene parcels and had the pleasure of choosing Christmas presents for children who, if it wasn’t for Zarach, would probably go without this christmas.

Becci continued:

It was an absolute privilege to be involved and a huge responsibility deciding what a child was going to open on Christmas Day.  Despite the freezing cold warehouse we all had lots of fun spending time together as a team.  

We hope to continue supporting Zarach throughout the year and will most definitely be back next Christmas (with thermals on!)

If you’d like more information about Zarach, and how you could make a difference for a family this christmas, check out their website and get in touch!

Source:
thecft.org.uk