For once I don’t mean to sound gloomy here – hopeful, rather. Optimistic, even.
OK, let’s not go too far with the joyfest. We have a long way to travel, and there have been false dawns before.
But with new data coming in all the time about the effects of the Omicron wave (and this is not to downplay what is still a very serious situation), it looks possible that we might be on course for something approaching pre-pandemic ‘normality’ as we edge through 2022.
It is looking like a combination of vaccines, acquired immunity and natural selection making the disease milder but more transmissible is allowing Covid (new variants notwithstanding) to pass from pandemic to endemic, in the UK and western Europe at least.
This brings with it the possibility of opening up. Now, there are different ways of opening up – there’s the sort of opening up (cutting isolation periods, ending free testing etc) which are dictated by the needs of business and profit-making, and there is the sort of opening up which is dictated by the needs of people.
It’s the latter which we should concentrate on. While we have, to greater or lesser extents depending on circumstances, got used to living like this, we do need to see and hear each other in the flesh. Actual human contact is a qualitatively different experience from the electronic nexus of Zoom or Teams.
For the charity sector, opening up is important as it allows us to get our message across and to rally communities of supporters in person. Our events organisers and fundraisers have worked wonders with the possibilities of the virtual – and all of that learning and experience will stay with us.
But we have missed joining together in real life, at a community level and – let’s be honest – at a financial level. The sector has missed the income from mass, in-person fundraising events at a time when it has been needed the most.
It’s good to see these back in the diary – the Kiltwalks and the MoonWalks (see pages 12 to 14).
It’s also wonderful to look forward to the return of SCVO’s Gathering event (pages 6 and 7). This was a real miss from the charity sector calendar last year – and while nothing is certain at this distance, I know that organisers are planning something extra special this year.
There is still a lot of uncertainty around. There is still a lot of fear and there is still a lot of heartbreak to get through. This is still a killer disease, and it hasn’t gone away. It now never will.
As we look to open up, we must address people’s real fears – we must harness what was best about our pandemic response (the impulse to form communities, to help out, to create grassroots self-help groups, especially prevalent during the first wave and lockdown). We must also carry with us some of the practical experience – flexible and home working should be here to stay, for example.
As some of us at least wander blinkingly back into the daylight, I think, hope it’s OK to whisper… it’s good to be back..
Graham Martin is editor of TFN.
