SOS.Lithuania update
We had an amazingly smooth and joyful start to the project!
The members who will benefit from the support provided by this project are recognized as people with disabilities, people who are elderly, or who have mental health or physical issues. The knowledge and understanding of their needs and recognition of a language barrier were the main reasons for our community group SOS.LT applying for the funding.
Our trustee Amir Suleman sourced several reconditioned laptops for the Lithuanian Community members to use. The laptops were given to 10 households, where at least one of the members of the household is involved in the project and signed the consent form to be filmed and photographed. Some of the group preferred to meet together at the community group office for the first learning session on how to use the device. Some of them could not join the group because of their limited mobility or mental health issues, so the laptops were delivered to their homes.
We developed a training schedule for the group and for their first session the participants, and some of their family members, were taught how to use Google search, Google Translator and how to access emails.
On the 18th of August, Vilma Grakauskaite, who is recognized as the leader of the group of elderly and disabled, together with Snieguole Maliavskaja (Snow), who is the chair of SOS.LT, attended a meeting at Thistlemoor Surgery. The purpose of the meeting was to be trained on how to use the NHS app. Using the NHS app will benefit patients by giving them an alternative way of contacting their GP. Vilma and Snow were shown how to register for an appointment with a doctor or to ask for a prescription using the app. They are now gradually passing their knowledge on to the other participants of the project and, at the same time, identifying the issues that can arise during the use of the app. As an additional training tool the team are making use of this video, provided by the NHS.
The participants of the project were also shown how to use the devices for accessing their benefits accounts, searching for the relevant information on the gov.uk website and using social media, such as Facebook and YouTube channels.
Recently, Vilma Grakauskaite was invited as a guest speaker on the Lithuanian show, hosted by the chair of SOS.LT Snieguole Maliavskaja, at the local radio station Salaam Radio, to discuss this project. The participants in the project were shown how to find and watch this show and all other episodes of the show that are hosted in Lithuanian by Snieguole Maliavskaja (Snow) every Monday. The show is also available on the channels mentioned above.
Our next step in the training process is to work with an English language tutor about the possibility of providing English lessons for the participants of the project remotely (there will be no charge for this).
We have also planned a meeting for the participants with psychotherapist Jolita Gaskin, who is a Lithuanian, living in London. She is coming to Peterborough on 5th September to meet all the participants in person and to agree to the possibility of providing online sessions for the most vulnerable among them. We aim to show them how to complete the forms required to access the sessions with the specialist online.
Future training sessions will include exploring, introducing and teaching the participants how to use the training videos on www.learnmyway.com.