With fixtures and in-person training cancelled, many of our sports clubs have not only been training and hosting socials virtually, but also doing some great charity work and raising awareness of a variety of causes. I spoke to Netball, Men’s Football and Boat Club to see what they’ve been up to over the past few months.

BL Netball

BOW FOODBANK AND FGM AWARENESS

Why did the club decide to have events and raise awareness for Bow Foodbank?

We usually do fundraiser via the Netball Ball, but obviously due to the pandemic we knew this couldn’t happen. We had been doing some volunteering at the foodbank via Annie (the BL volunteering officer), and the girls were absolutely loving it and were really touched by the amazing work they were doing.

During a committee meeting, one member mentioned the Bow Foodbank Fundraiser and how they really needed donations with the statistics shocking us. We therefore thought why not do a fundraiser for something we really cared about, and was so important, especially just before Christmas.

Because of COVID, and with so many of our girls working & volunteering in the NHS, we saw first-hand just how difficult the situation was and couldn’t imagine people going hungry - around 1,500 kids are fed by Bow Food Bank and the possibility of them losing their source of food was horrifying.

What did the club do to help?

We decided to do 16,000 step ups in 10 days, having chosen that number as the foodbank's costs had risen from £2,000 to £16,000 during the pandemic. We ended up smashing our £1000 target by day 2, so we raised it to £2000 and ended up raising £2,120.

We also pushed girls to spread awareness and donate to the foodbank if they could - as of course doing step ups is not everyone’s thing. We also didn’t want to add any pressure to any girls experiencing difficulties with exercising or eating, something that had been prominent in COVID. That’s also why we made sure step up counting was anonymous, so there was no competitive element and people didn’t feel pressured during the challenge.

How can people get involved with this cause?

In terms of what people can do, volunteering at the food bank is an amazing experience worth doing! Raising awareness for the current fundraising campaign is also so important (they still need to raise a huge amount more just to stay afloat because of COVID), and just donating food or money if you can - we know we are students and often don’t have too much spare money, so even just a share goes a long way!

What have you been doing for the FGM awareness campaign?

We have also been working on an Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) awareness campaign, and incorporating elements such as mapping in Tanzania as work to help map areas NGOs need to help tackle FGM. We also held a film screening to raise awareness about the cultural traditions behind FGM, and the facts too, to raise awareness as to why people do it and how heavy the cultural side of it is. We also collaborated with Students for Global Health (SfGH), and we invited a speaker to come on the 25th February to speak to us on this topic.

BL Men’s Football

BARTS FOOTBALL TACKLES MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGN

Why did the club decide to have events and raise awareness for men’s mental health?

Men’s mental health is something that needs to be spoken about more; put simply, a large number of men suffer from mental health issues and find it difficult to speak about it. One of the reasons for this is the stigma around men not being able to express their feelings, such as due to disruption of the so called ‘masculine image’.

This is something as a football club we wanted to address and ensure men know that they can communicate their feelings with peers.

What did the club do for this campaign?

Week 1 of the campaign revolved about the eggs you can see above! Mental health can be as fragile as an egg, and we therefore encouraged students to carry around an egg and protect it as if it were their head i.e. their mental health. This had really good engagement from not only BL football members, but also members from other clubs.

In week 2, we asked people how lockdown had affected their mental health and advice for coping mechanism in these unprecedented times. Our Freshers had fantastic views on how the club had held events to help their university experience.

For week 3, we teamed up with BL Dance, BL Open Minds, and BL Women’s Football to do a Zumba class, a healthy minds mental health workshop and a fitness session with each of those groups respectively.

In week 4, we had the Barts Tackles Mental Health Quiz which well attended by the Barts and The London Community. All the money raised went to the mental health charity MIND.

How can people get involved with this cause?

We host these kinds of events for Men’s Mental Health every year now, so next time we do it would be really great if even more people attended and help us raise awareness that much more, as well as increase the amount of money we raise.

BL Boat Club

MOVEMBER AND GOOD LAD INITIATIVE

Why did the club decide to take part in Movember and Good Lad Initiative?

Movember was something we hadn’t done before as a whole club, and being such a large BL group we wanted to get involved as we were passionate about men’s mental health and opening up a conversation surrounding that. We then got involved with the Good Lad Initiative (now rebranded as Beyond Equality) following Movember.

The Good Lad Initiative aims to provide space for teams to talk through difficult issues surround masculinity and the expectations placed on us as men, in order to create a healthier environment within the club, and so that people feel more able to approach their teammates if they are having a difficult time. This is in order to help address the underlying issues behind the fact that men tragically disproportionately die from suicide. GLI also gave us the opportunity to talk about other important issues such as consent and privilege, so that we can work on creating a sports club which is more welcoming to everyone and address unhealthy and toxic cultures within sports teams.

What did the club do for this campaign?

For Movember we raised £2,883. Alongside the men growing moustaches for the month of November, the women’s squad also joined in by running during the month and some members of the club undertook additional challenges. One of our club members (Kieran) rowed the distance from our boathouse to France (200km) on a rowing machine over the month.

For the Good Lad Initiative, along with BLWP, we joined a guided discussion where we spoke through important topics that we otherwise had not taken the time to have as a club.

How can people get involved with this cause?

You can contact the QMBL Movember ambassadors at qmblmovember@gmail.com

You can find more information on GLI at www.goodladinitiative.com