11th hour appeal to save home-visiting service for blind

East Sussex blind charity Homecall, which won a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2006, announced this week that it is ending its home visiting service on September 30.

East Sussex County Council ended its 130,000-a-year support for Homecall via the East Sussex, Easbourne and Hastings and Rother blind associations in 2006.

Now Homecall county chairman Audrey Paul has written to clients telling them that the charity cannot afford to continue.

But Bexhill Homecall organiser Jenny Private is determined not to give up without a fight.

Some 64 clients in Bexhill and nearby rural communities are heavily dependent on Jenny's 59 local volunteers.

Jenny believes that the 20,000-a-year cost of running Homecall in Bexhill could be reduced to 15,000.

Now Jenny is writing to service clubs, trusts and charities appealing for help.

She says: "My volunteers are very valuable people. They visit our clients once a week for about an hour.

"But it is very fluid.

"Some clients only need someone for an hour once a month. One only needed a visit once a year '“ to help write the Christmas cards.

"Others are heavily dependent on our volunteers. For them an hour a week is not enough. The need the volunteers to do more and more."

Jenny, co-organiser of last week's successful Homecall cream tea and dance, which raised 530 for the cause ahead of Monday's closure announcement, says: "We are there to help clients with their needs.

"Some need help in the home. Others need to be taken out to collect their pensions or to do their shopping.

"But, equally importantly, is having someone who becomes a friend '“ someone who is there to share their troubles with and to ask 'What can I do...?'"

Homecall's overheads include covering volunteers' travel costs and offering them training.

Homecall has been running for 22 years.

County council support for the charity had been reduced over the years. But demand for its services had mushroomed. County-wide, it is currently serving more than 350 clients.

In the eight years that Jenny Private has been in charge at Bexhill, the number of local clients has more than doubled but her hours as organiser have been reduced from from 20 to 18.

Anyone able to help Jenny Private with her appeal to keep Homecall services going in Bexhill is invited to contact her on 848365 or by letter at 149 Peartree Lane, Bexhill TN39 4NR.

*Homecall volunteers will again be fund-raising for the cause by taking part in the annual Rotary Community Charity Walk on Sunday, June 8.