On Wednesday this week, we were delighted to have a visit from Gill Perkins and Richard Aldridge from Wandsworth Oasis, who came in to say hello and very generously presented us with a cheque to support NAM’s patient information work.
Wandsworth Oases are self-help groups for people who are affected by HIV and AIDS, their carers, families and friends. Members of the local Salvation Army started Wandsworth Oasis in July 1989, and ever since the Oases centres have worked closely with the Salvation Army, in the UK and overseas, and strongly support other work within the communities affected by HIV and AIDS.
Wandsworth Oasis has five shops in south London, which sell a huge variety of items donated by local people and local businesses, and the Oases use the revenue from the sale of items to donate to organisations and groups supporting local people affected by HIV and AIDS. Gill told us that they often get weird and wonderful donations from people, including two huge cart wheels that arrived at one of the shops recently!
The fantastic work of the Oases not only supports people in Wandsworth by funding projects, such as NAM’s patient information and back-to-work programmes for people recovering from substance abuse, but their shops also give people with HIV an often much-needed ‘safe place’ to go to have a chat and a cup of tea with the friendly volunteers who work in the shops.
Richard explained that having NAM’s booklets and leaflets in the shops give people with HIV an opportunity to pick up and read HIV information in a place where they feel comfortable, rather than in a clinic or a public place where someone may feel fearful of disclosure and stigma.
We were delighted to have the opportunity to thank Gill, the chief executive of Wandsworth Oasis, and Richard personally for their generous support of NAM’s work, and we very much look forward to hearing about who buys the cart wheels!
For more information
If you would like to support our work, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us on 020 7837 6988 or email info@nam.org.uk. If you’re thinking about raising money for us, there are lots of ideas in the fundraising pages of our website – and you can also make a donation online. Visit www.aidsmap.com/donate.
To find out more about Wandsworth Oasis, visit www.wandsworthoasis.org