How to access help in Rye and surrounding areas during the coronavirus pandemic

Rye Mutual Aid has seen a volunteer workforce of more than 500 people come together in the past two weeks.

Founded by Caroline Drummond and Jen Sinclair, the group initially focussed on delivering help in Rye town.

However the word spread and now as well as Rye the group covers Beckley, Camber and East Guldeford, Rye Foreign and Playden, Udimore, Bredeand Broad Oak, Winchelsea and Winchelsea Beach, Icklesham, Pett and Pett Level, Rye Harbour and Peasmarsh.

The volunteers are organised in 20 teams - ten for different parts of Rye and the rest cover the surrounding villages.

Each area has two or three coordinators (called dispatchers) who take calls from residents needing help, filter the requests, then pass accepted requests to the volunteers in their local area.

Services offered include collecting shopping, posting letters, putting bins out, dog walking, picking up prescriptions and a friendly chat. Many local businesses are also offering services, so the Rye Mutual Aid group wants to act as a last resort for people who do not have any other means of getting help.

Health and safety protocols have been established to ensure that volunteers and recipients of help are protected.

Other members of the community have rallied around to help the new group, including Colonel Anthony Kimber, of the Rye Emergency Action Community Team (REACT), and local business and community partners include supermarkets, chemists, charities such as the Food Bank and other organisations.

To access the contact list, please click here.