A Southwark councillor has been given an award by a royal charity for her volunteering efforts.
Cllr Maria Linforth-Hall runs a charity, Su Mano Amiga, which helps domestic violence victims, especially in the Latin American community around Elephant and Castle. In lockdown she was seeing as many as 26 victims a day.
She told the News: “I would be speaking on the telephone, and I could see the other calls coming in. So it was one call after another and after another.
“It was very difficult for the parents obviously but it is also difficult for children, living in one-bed flats, or bedsits. They were in the middle of fights between parents, if they couldn’t go out it was even worse.”
“I was very concerned for the mental health of children, and you become concerned that would become perpetrators later.” As well as her work with women, she has also helped the children in these families through dedicated activity sessions, first in-person and then over Zoom during the pandemic.
Part of Cllr Linforth-Hall’s work with her charity, which she founded in 2016, is dance therapy with Siobhan Davies studios on St George’s Road near Elephant and Castle. “The sessions are for the people that have suffered, to get a time of expansion, to be able to enjoy dance and movements and productivity.”
Cllr Linforth Hall is a Liberal Democrat who represents St George’s ward in the north of the borough, in the area where her charity works.
“Being a councillor is fantastic because I am able to have more inside knowledge of how I can help them with housing. You get to know the officers.
“At one stage before lockdown, I was going to the council housing office on Walworth Road every month, then twice a month, then every week, then three days a week. I was helping people who are homeless, helping them to do translation.”
The offices officially close at 4pm but Cllr Linforth-Hall said she would often stay helping people until 10pm.
Asked why the Latin American community needs a dedicated domestic violence victim support charity, Cllr Linforth-Hall, who is originally from Ecuador, said: “It’s a cultural thing, the machismo that exists [among some Latin American people]. The husband is the one who commands, not just physical things but also psychological.”
She added that some women from Latin American communities might find it harder to speak up about the abuse they are facing, and having someone who speaks their first language can make it easier to ask for help.
Cllr Linforth-Hall was one of 490 people across the UK given the Platinum Champion award as part of the jubilee celebrations.
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The awards were given out by the Royal Voluntary Service, of which the Queen is the patron. Cllr Linforth-Hall was nominated by her constituents. A panel led by The Duchess of Cornwall picked the winners from more than 3,000 nominations.
As well as her work with domestic violence victims, Cllr Linforth-Hall also worked with local pharmacist Atul Patel to get Covid-19 vaccines to people who could not leave their home.
Cllr Linforth-Hall said: “Volunteering is an important part of being part of a community and I urge other Southwark residents to give what time they can to help neighbours in need. Of course I am proud to receive an award from such a prestigious organisation. But, most of all, I want to say my thanks to those constituents who nominated me in the first place. They are part of the reason I dedicate myself to charitable causes.”