Community Service

'Ask not what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community.' This would be a fine, even noble, reason for doing community service but most of the twenty of us who do Community Service on Station afternoons have more pragmatic ones - including avoiding going up to the knees in the Thames in weather that would make a polar bear wince. But there's more to it than an excuse for spending the afternoon making cookies and doing finger painting. It's a great way of getting a view of life which isn't filtered through books. Placements include nursery and primary schools, working in hospitals and Oxfam shops and visiting the elderly. The breadth of options is matched only by the variety of people who take part, from the future doctor who feels her work in a geriatric ward shows her the less glamorous side of medicine to the visitor of the elderly who said, 'It's fascinating, she's done things my family and I have never done and will never do.'

Rachel Wellman (Purcell's)

St Botolph's

St Botolph's is a self-funding project, set up to help the homeless in central London. It is run from the halls and crypt of St Botolph's Church which is next door to Aldgate tube station, in the heart of the City of London. Over the Play and Lent Terms this year thirty or so Westminsters (all volunteers from the Sixth and Remove) worked there, each for a few weeks, on Monday nights.

Like most people who volunteered to work on the project, I had no idea what to expect from it nor what would be expected of me. On arrival each evening, we were allocated jobs, ranging from giving out soap, rolls and sandwiches (the latter were donated by snack bars from the vicinity) to taking names of people wanting to see the doctor or nurse, or any one of the many little tasks needed to keep the evening running smoothly. Afterwards there was cleaning-up and then a long discussion with the project workers as to what we felt had been good or bad about the evening. The atmosphere was always relaxed, welcoming and friendly; only once in all the times I went to St Botolph's was there any kind of violence and that was dealt with so quickly, it seemed over almost before it had started.

I feel that the benefit to me, and to all those who took part has been enormous. Rather than making uninformed generalisations about what I believed the reasons for homelessness to be, I recognise now that there are no simple solutions to this complex and on-going problem. Only by taking part in a programme at the lowest level can we hope to understand the realities of the situation.

All credit to those who took the plunge and gave up their time. To any considering working at St Botolph's - you miss this opportunity at your peril. Many thanks to John Troy and all the other members of staff who facilitated our working on the project.

Alex Aiken (College)

Amnesty International at Westminster

Westminster School has been an active supporter of Amnesty International for several years now, and has run weekly letter-writing sessions open to all years.

We started the year handicapped. The 1996-97 committee was surprised to find itself in debt to the tune of over £150 to the School. This was due, in part, to an absence of funding by the School, and to the extensive use of money raised here to fund Amnesty projects elsewhere.

Owing to this, the new committee (Tom Balogh, Vineet Dewan, Mohan Ganesalingam, Jacob Kenedy, Jamie McClelland, Jemma Myers, Dave Odgers, Cara Proctor and Francesca Segal), rather anxious to conserve and raise money, obtained permission to hold a Shag Day after a rousing talk in Abbey by Jamie McClelland. The Shag Day provided well in excess of £500 in new funds, making Amnesty solvent once again.

Every week, members of the School write to governments and embassies which condone, or choose to ignore, human rights violations such as torture, the oppression of freedom of speech, wrongful imprisonment and unjust capital punishment. This year we have written to, among many others, Algeria, South Africa, Indonesia, the USA, and also to Great Britain (under both Conservative and Labour administrations) about the export of military and security equipment to countries known to disregard human rights, and we have had considerable success with our home government, and also with prisoners of conscience abroad.

Attendance at our letter-writing sessions has been consistently high, to a maximum of sixty-seven participants. It would seem that Amnesty has a long future at the School, and we look forwards to many forthcoming productive years.

Jacob Kenedy (Dryden's)