The Sure Community Foundation has donated £22,000 to local causes within Guernsey since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the outbreak, Sure staff across the seven territories increased their donations and raised £12,700 which Sure matched pound for pound to help the Foundation further its support to the community. During the coronavirus pandemic, many charities have seen an increase in work and the Foundation has tried to support as many as possible locally.

The Foundation applied Sure’s expertise and provided the Guernsey Lions Club, St Martins Church and the Rohais Methodist Church with free access to Sure’s on-demand voice conference service to allow members to stay connected and continue to carry out meetings and services during lockdown.

While children studied at home, some junior and secondary school students were without access to the internet.

The Foundation provided these students with free WiFi to help them continue their studies while they were confined to their homes.

This support was also provided to members of the community that had no way of contacting family or friends and the Foundation partnered up with the charity We All Matter, Eh! as part of the #StayConnected initiative to support islanders in residential accommodation so they could keep in touch with loved ones.

Karen Blanchford from We All Matter Eh? said: “The Sure Community Foundation has supported the #StayConnected initiative since it began.

Initially they provided us with WiFi devices including data for phase one and arranged more for phase two at a reduced rate.

We are not just grateful for the technological support but for believing in the project and wanting to help us connect older and vulnerable people by helping us to reduce the number of islanders feeling isolated and help increase their independence.

We want to say a special thanks to Karren Jagger who has been actively involved and a key partner.”

Mind Guernsey also saw an increase in demand which meant that volunteers had to work an increased number of hours. The charity, which works to promote positive mental wellbeing for the

Community, were supplied with a donation of £3,240 by the Foundation to help with the provision of handsets for staff members.

Another charity which saw challenges while the island was in lockdown was the MS Society.

The charity, which funds research and support for people living with multiple sclerosis, has recently reopened its services after being unable to fundraise while restrictions were in place.

The foundation supported the charity with a donation of £2,280 which will cover nearly all costs of exercise classes at Beau Sejour for people with MS for the next six months.

Karen Jagger of the Sure Community Foundation said: “Everyone involved with the Foundation has been working incredibly hard to help as many people as possible.

Since the start of lockdown, we deployed over 109 mobile devices with WiFi in Guernsey. Although our support is often only small, we hope that we have helped islanders.

We are always looking for charities to get in touch with us, so please let us know if you too would like support.” If you would like to get in touch with us about a charitable or community project, email CommunityFoundation@sure.com