Streetreach cleans up Belfast
They might have been suffering from lack of sleep after Summer Madness but that didn’t deter thousands of young people from both sides of the community as they swamped 15 areas of Belfast in a major spruce up. The first areas to be tackled were in Ballymurphy and Ballysillan with the teams moving into Lower Shankill, Tigers, Bay, New Lodge, Springfield, Woodvale, Sandy Row, Holy Land, Lenadoon, Willowfield, Woodstock, Beersbridge and Ballymacarrett as the week progressed.
One of the StreetReach organisers, Linda Gordon, said that they never go anywhere unless invited and it’s up to the local people to say what help they want in their particular area. Tidying up a graveyard on the Falls Road was one example which earned well deserved praise from a Belfast Councillor who said that after 30 years of neglect people in the area now felt they could again visit the graves of their loved ones.
Other activities undertaken by the enthusiasm StreetReachers included street cleaning, gardening for residents, painting walls and murals, running kids clubs, delivering window boxes to the housebound, taking elderly people on outings and making contact with refugees. All this was done by young Christians who simply wanted ‘to show the love of God in practical ways to the people in the most broken areas of our city’.
Many of the StreetReach ‘volunteers’ camped out at the King’s Hall with local churches and organisations undertaking the provision of food and sustenance during the day. The breakfast slot fell to Down & Dromore Mothers’ Union who were fully stretched providing breakfast for the hungry StreetReachers at the start of each busy day.
