Grey Hutton documents the growing network of support found across Hackney
On Christmas Eve a lady shows off her new nails as she collects food and essentials from the Community Food Hub on the De Beauvoir Estate. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Ava sits quietly on the sofa in the living room at home, Hackney, 15th October, 2020. After school she often doesn't leave her room and since lockdown hasn’t felt comfortable leaving the house at all. According to the recent Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents, and Children in Epidemics) survey led by experts at Oxford University, children from lower-income families have displayed consistently elevated behavioural, emotional, and attentional difficulties over the course of the pandemic, and a separate report from the Guardian found that anxiety, sleep problems, eating disorders and self-harm have risen sharply in under 18’s. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Jah-Shantaye in St Thomas’s Square near her families flat on the Frampton Park Estate in Hackney, 21st September, 2020. She’s 15 years old now, but since she was five she’s been involved with local charity Children With Voices, more recently teaching younger children about nutrition, and distributing food to vulnerable families across the borough. Throughout the pandemic her work at the community food hub has continued alongside her mother, Carletta, who suffers from severe anxiety after three road accidents in one year. She describes Jah-Shantaye as “my little backup, my rock”. Due to her mother’s poor memory and her brother's health and learning difficulties, the youngest of the family has had to take on a lot of responsibility. In 2016 she was awarded a Jack Petchey Achievement Award for her work in the community. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Sahra Adan in Banister House Community Hall, Hackney, 25th August, 2020. 15 years ago Sahra and her family fled Somalia during the civil war and moved to Hackney, London, where they still live today. The adjustment was easy for the children who were young and in school, but Sahra struggled with the language and to this day often needs her family's help with English. It has been widely reported that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, and within Sahra’s wider social group she knows of over 15 people that have died from Covid-19 in the UK, including a 13 year old boy.
Source:Fadumo and her son Mubarak below their apartment on the Pembury Estate, 15th July, 2020. All six of her children have been homeschooled during the pandemic and she’s worried her children are falling behind at school. Faduma’s reading and writing in English is limited, and with no experience of using a computer it is hard to oversee her children's progress. She attends online classes to improve her English, organised by Shukri Adan from the volunteer organisation Connecting All Communities. Mubarak tries to balance his day with school work, computer games, and socialising with his family. Because he goes outside so little he’s playing more computer games now, around 4 hours a day, but tells me he has friends who play between 6 and 12 hours a day. Betzalel Davidovits shows off the new trick he’s learnt on the trampoline during lockdown, 4th May 2020. The Davidovits are fortunate to have this outdoor space at home, another Haredi Jewish family I met in Stamford Hill has 6 children sharing 1 and a half bedrooms. Ever rising house prices and large multigenerational families means that many in Hackney’s strictly Orthodox community live in cramped conditions. This enabled the virus to spread rapidly through the community, making many households completely reliant upon voluntary support groups. © Grey Hutton.
Source:The prayer hall of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Hackney lies empty, 4th July, 2020. Places of worship reopened across the UK on the 15th June under new social distancing guidelines, however many have chosen to remain closed to their congregations in order to better prepare for safer worship. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Shlomo and Malky Davidovits feed Gitty, their youngest child. They have been enjoying having all their children at home “Of course it comes with its challenges, its mess, and no quiet time, but it's almost like the school has taken away our kids. Not literally, but so many hours of the day they are out. They’re rushed out in the morning and they come back tired, so when do we get to know them?” Malky told me. Betzalel Davidovits shows off the new trick he’s learnt on the trampoline during lockdown, 4th May 2020. The Davidovits are fortunate to have this outdoor space at home, another Haredi Jewish family I met in Stamford Hill has 6 children sharing 1 and a half bedrooms. Ever rising house prices and large multigenerational families means that many in Hackney’s strictly Orthodox community live in cramped conditions. This enabled the virus to spread rapidly through the community, making many households completely reliant upon voluntary support groups. © Grey Hutton.
Source:A team of Hatzola volunteers in full PPE clean the ambulances, dispose of dirty linen, and restock anything that’s been used that day, 12th May 2020. Hatzola is a 24/7 emergency medical response organisation serving the Jewish community. Started in New York in the 1960s, it is the largest voluntary ambulance organisation in the world. The Stamford Hill branch has almost 50 volunteers and on a normal day might field 20 calls, but at the peak of the crisis, it was receiving 80 calls a day. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Betzalel Davidovits shows off the new trick he’s learnt on the trampoline during lockdown, 4th May, 2020. The Davidovits are fortunate to have this extra space while their six children are home so much. Housing in Stamford Hill has become extremely expensive, and Orthodox Jewish families are traditionally large, so many families find themselves living in more cramped conditions. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Overlooking Springfield Park families gather on their balconies for prayer and to watch the sunset. Halakha (Jewish law) suggests that prayer should take place with at least 10 people, so with the synagogues closed, some neighbours have taken to praying alongside each other outside their homes. © Grey Hutton.
Source:Volunteers Ziggy Noonan, Carletta Gorden, and Michelle Dornelly sing along to Whitney Houston as they pack bags with food at the Community Food Hub in the Wilton Estate Community Centre, 6th April, 2020. © Grey Hutton.
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