The National Support Centre has entered into 4th development phase to provide support to Chinese, East Asian and South East Asian communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Centre was first planned in mid-February and established in late February 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that severely affected hundreds of thousand in our professional community and numerous SMEs in the UK.
Phase 1: In February, the centre was physically centred in Edinburgh and operated virtually for initial coverage of the entire Scotland, our centre team initially comprised of 15 professionals who dedicated all efforts to competing with time as situation worsened in the UK while taking care of their families and daily work.
Phase 2: In April, due to the urgent need and available volunteers from our Chinese communities in other parts of the UK, the support centre was transformed nationally to cover all parts of the UK increasing community projects to 30. With centre representatives in London, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Glasgow, Leeds, Oxford and Manchester, the support centre has created a third party mechanism to record the incidents of service users who got in touch.
Phase 3: By June, the support centre has transformed itself from waiting for service users' calls to going to communities member by member to offer support. The centre set up 5 teams - outreach, social media, operation, IT, HR, backed up by YCP student committee and UKFCP Global Diaspora Coalition Team. Near mid-June, the lockdown eased in England and hate has globally grown at an outrageous pace, East & South East Asian diaspora communities have also experienced and attempted to address the problems.
Phase 4: In July, UKFCP National Support Centre has transformed itself again into Assisting East & South East Asian (AESEA) National Support Centre to also provide support beyond Chinese communities mainly focusing on tackling hate incidents. On 1st July, 230 diaspora organisations have come together to send out a joint statement in solidarity with those who faced xenophobia and hate due to the Covid-19 pandemic, initiated by the UKFCP.
Today, our aim remains the same. We aim to do our very best to support Chinese, East Asian and South East Asian professionals and retirees when they need the most.
Samuel Chan
AESEA National Support Centre Manager
英国东亚及东南亚社群全国援助中心主任