Caravan, the charity which specifically helps those who have worked in the grocery industry, is looking towards 2010 determined to raise public awareness of the work that it does and increase the number of beneficiaries which it supports.

The charity – which is now 150-years-old – currently provides aid to 1,850 beneficiaries and their dependants across the UK, including Northern Ireland. The vast majority of those people who are currently receiving help have served an average of 25 years in some corner of the grocery industry, have no savings at all and are living solely off the state pension.

Each of them receives an annual payment of £778, which amounts to around £15 a week of additional aid. And as Caravan’s director general, Gillian Barker explained recently during an awareness-boosting reception for business leaders at Hillsborough Castle (see opposite page), the assistance that the charity can offer doesn’t stop there:

“The breadth of the support we give may surprise you”, she told the gathering. “In addition to the annual payment, we also supply what we refer to as ‘basic essentials’, which are cookers, fridges, carpets, stair-lifts and beds to those who don’t have the wherewithal to make such purchases.

“We also send birthday cards to each beneficiary. One Northern Ireland beneficiary who we have looked after for 20 years, sent us a letter recently thanking us for her Caravan card. She told us that it was the first birthday card that she had received since her parents died 30 years before!”

The work that Caravan does is made possible by the efforts of a series of branch committees, the members of which give their time voluntarily to organise fundraising events and drive local awareness of the charity’s aims. Here in Northern Ireland, the committee, which has been operating since 1991, is led by Tesco’s Northern Irish commercial manager, Cliff Kells.

There are currently 18 people in the province who benefit from Caravan aid – some of them live in very remote areas and one has recently had a telephone line installed and paid for by the charity:

“I know that there are far more potential beneficiaries in Northern Ireland, but we suffer from a lack of awareness”, Gillian Barker told those who attended the event at Hillsborough. “If people don’t know about us, then they will never think to find us.”

Gillian appealed to those at the reception to come forward if they knew of anyone who might be eligible for help from Caravan. And she asked them to spread word of the charity and the help it offers among colleagues and friends.

INCOME
All of the income which Caravan receives comes directly from the industry, much of it from fundraising events, such as the annual Grocers’ Ball – a glittering night out for the industry here in Northern Ireland during April which also incorporates the Ulster Grocer Marketing Awards. Last year, the local branch network raised £750,000 towards the work of Caravan and, as Gillian pointed out, they also played a key role in driving awareness of the charity:

“This is crucial if we are to help more former colleagues who have fallen on hard times”, she told her audience. “If workers on your shop and factory floors know of us and our work, chances are that they may know of a former colleague who might need a bit of a helping hand.”
According to Gillian, there has lately been a marked increase in the number of people who are approaching Caravan for help before they reach retirement age. This might be because of ill-health or because they are caring from disabled spouses or children. The outlook for many of these people, she added, can be “very bleak indeed”.

”None of us know what’s in store for us, but I am quite sure that illness and disability do not feature in our plans for the future, and when illness or sudden hardship does strike, we are quite unprepared for how this will change our lives”, she went on. “Fortunately, Caravan has been on hand to help many of our former colleagues through such trying circumstances.”

Speaking to Ulster Grocer after the Hillsborough gathering, Gillian also conceded that the current economic downturn was having some effect on Caravan’s activities:

“It’s affecting us in two ways”, she explained. “Firstly, companies are now looking at their budgets and re-examining their charitable giving. Also, it’s put pressure on the ordinary people out there, so they are looking to charities such as ours for support.”

Gillian revealed that during 2009, Caravan spent £1.8m on welfare provision across the British Isles, and she said that she hoped to be able to invest a similar amount this year.

“I think that the reason we are able to continue with this record level of support is because of the work that’s been done over the last four or five years to keep the awareness of Caravan up. But we have been around for 150 years and lots of people out there have still not heard about us or the work that we do. We are totally behind everything that is being done in Northern Ireland to raise awareness and the more people that get involved, the easier it is for us to spread the word.”

To find out more about the work of Caravan, visit www.caravan-charity.org.uk

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