What were you doing at 8pm last night? Watching Bridgerton? Eating your lockdown 3.0 banana bread? Enduring a third round of Zoom quizzes? Most likely, it was one of the three. What you probably weren’t doing, because it seems like no one in the world did, was clapping.
The Clap for Carers initiative was dubbed to return last night with a new name, Clap for Heroes, with founder Annemarie Plas announcing it on Twitter. ‘We are bringing back the 8pm applause in our third lockdown. I hope it can lift the spirit of all of us,’ she said. The news spread like wildfire, with the searches ‘What time is clap for heroes?’, ‘Clap for heroes returns’ and ‘Is it clap for heroes tonight’ suddenly peaking on Google Trends.
But just like the announcement tweet she has now deleted after facing online criticism, it seems Clap for Heroes has been cancelled. Why? Because after 10 months of the government spitting in the face of the health and care workers saving our lives, it’s just not enough.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t clap – and no one should certainly be sending hate to Annemarie, who clearly had good intentions – because there was something uniquely inspiring about the public display of love for our NHS and beyond in the first lockdown. In fact, it felt more useful for people feeling lonely and isolated than anything, a loud reminder that they weren’t alone.
But, it is to say that we shouldn’t JUST be clapping. There are plenty of actual tangible things you can do to help the people putting their lives at risk to keep us safe that go beyond empty gestures. Just take a scroll for yourself and see…
Support Thunderclap For Carers
In response to Clap for Heroes, food poverty campaigner Jack Munroe founded ThunderclapForCarers – a new online campaign calling the public to lobby MPs for better pay, PPE, protection and parking for frontline workers. Instead of clapping, Jack is encouraging everyone to tweet, email or write to their MP every Thursday at 8pm to demand change for health and care workers.
With support from Best For Britain, an online tool that makes it easy to send your MP an email calling for better pay and support for frontline workers, the initiative hopes to go beyond performative clapping and achieve some real change.
If you want to send your own personalised message, you can also use the tool WriteToThem to find your MP and send an email to them yourself.
Donate to NHS Charities Together
After the success of Clap for Carers last year, NHS Charities Together launched a public appeal asking for monetary donations. The ‘One Million Claps’ campaign asked the public to send a text message of support to NHS staff, costing them £5 that would then go towards the charity. It raised over £1million in less than 10 days after 200,000 people got involved straight off the bat.
You can still get involved in theOne Million Claps campaign or you can donate whatever you can afford to NHS Charities Together - the union that represents NHS Charities funding our hospitals. There are more than 240 NHS charities across the UK and most of them focus on helping our hospitals do more. Collectively they give £1 million every day to the NHS and have funded major capital projects, pioneering research and medical equipment.
Sign this petition
A petition on the 38Degrees platform called ‘Give our heroes the pay rise they deserve’calls on the government to ‘truly value the tireless work’ of NHS staff and ‘recognise the carers, nurses, doctors, porters, cleaners and everyone else who make us feel safe and cared for in our darkest times.’
With near 300,000 signatures already, it’s set to make waves as Clap for Carers continues to cause controversy in the coming weeks.
Volunteer for Samaritans
Last year, with the mental health of health and care workers at an all-time low, Samaritans launched a new, confidential support line for them across England and Wales. Promoted by the NHS to their staff, the support lines are run by Samaritans and all calls are answered by trained Samaritans volunteers, who provide confidential, non-judgmental support.
You can help by volunteering with the Samaritans, who are still recruiting and training people virtually – to help support the company providing life-saving care for NHS staff struggling with mental health issues right now. You can also donate, host a fundraising event or buy something from their online shop to help out too.
Read More:
Good News Worth Sharing: #ClapForNHS Has Inspired A Public Appeal For Donations To NHS Staff
Terrified. Emotional. Uncertain. Lonely. Four Tales From The NHS Frontline
‘NHS Staff Risked Their Lives For Me. I Still Think About Them Every Day’