During my visit to Erith Fire Station in July, I had the privilege of sitting down with Jim Morford, the Fire Borough Commander for Bexley, to learn more about the impressive efforts of the local firefighting team in promoting fire safety within the community. It was great to witness the dedication and passion they exhibited in their mission.
One of the standout highlights of our discussion was the inspiring success story of the Fire Cadets scheme tailored for young people. Jim shared how this program was not only imparting invaluable life skills but also instilling a sense of responsibility and commitment to fire safety in the youth of Bexley. It’s a testament to the station’s proactive approach to community engagement.
We had interesting conversations about increasingly common causes for fire, one of which being the usage of unofficial e-bike and e-scooter chargers. It’s important we work together as a community to increase awareness around fire safety, and what we can do to prevent fires from happening in the first place.
https://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Fire-Boro-Featured-Pic-1.jpg401750The Office of Abena Oppong-Asare MPhttps://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SM-Logo-3.pngThe Office of Abena Oppong-Asare MP2023-08-09 10:39:002024-06-12 09:59:30Meeting with the Fire Borough Commander and Tour of Erith Fire Station
Thank you to everyone from Erith and Thamesmead who contacted me about attending Age UK’s Summer Reception and the important issue of healthcare for older people.
I’m pleased to say that I attended their July event and spoke to many members of the Age UK team, their policy experts, and elderly people struggling with long waiting lists and a lack of support.
Thanks @AgeUK for hosting a reception in Parliament on Monday to raise awareness of the state of healthcare for older people.
I was pleased to see their stats for Erith and Thamesmead and I want to thank all my constituents who have contacted me about this important issue. pic.twitter.com/7W4buUW6cy
At the end of May, I visited Nepal with WaterAid UK and the Coalition for Global Prosperity to see the impact of development projects supporting access to clean water.
It was wonderful to be able to visit the beautiful country of Nepal and meet so many people doing life-saving and transformational work. Visiting some of the programmes that WaterAid is undertaking illuminated the extent of the hardship and poverty that so many in Nepal are facing. It also showed the amazing progress that has been made.
Poor access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) presents some serious challenges to vulnerable communities in Nepal. These include the proliferation of water-borne illness, poor sanitation, and restrictions on the opportunities afforded to citizens.
What I found particularly worrying was that these issues disproportionately affect women and young girls. A lack of sanitation has been related to a disproportionately smaller number of girls attending schools, particularly affecting those on their menstrual cycles.
For instance, only 39% of schools have separate, female-friendly toilets, meaning many young girls are left without a safe space to clean themselves and manage the difficulties associated with menstruation. This can discourage girls from attending school altogether, through fear of judgment, embarrassment and even harassment.
It is therefore great to see the outstanding progress that WaterAid have made with their WASH programmes. Citizens in these areas have experienced vastly improved quality of life, with improved access to safe water, better toilets, and improved hygiene.
Young girls have been offered safe spaces, which has succeeded in breaking down some of the barriers that might stop them from receiving an equal education to their male counterparts. It’s a really promising story that I am keen to see continue.
We all know having access to life-saving defibrillators saves lives. The issue is not their design but their location and public awareness about what they are and how to use them.
Having access to a life-saving defibrillator depends on where you live. Today, I called on the Government to address this cruel unfairness to save lives. That was my message in my Westminster Hall debate on public access to Defibrillators.
Research from the Resuscitation Council UK shows that access to defibrillators, or AEDs, is not fairly distributed across England. Each year, there are 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK, with less than one in ten surviving. Whilst immediate CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival, defibrillators are used in less than one in ten cases. If you have a cardiac arrest and have access to a defibrillator within a minute, have a 90% chance of survival.
According to the BMJ, access to a defibrillator varies widely by location:
140 per 100,000 people in Swansea
61 per 100,000 people in London
2 per 100,000 people in Birmingham
The issue was highlighted to me by the experience of my constituent, Bonnie McGhee, who works on the cardiology unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Bonnie sadly lost her father to cardiac arrest and has since successfully raised funds for a defibrillator in his memory.
Access to a defibrillator may have saved his life. Bonnie successfully fundraised for a defibrillator in memory of her father.
To save lives, defibrillators must be in a well-signposted location, unlocked and easy to find so that members of the community can access them immediately in an emergency. They must be maintained and ready for use. Information about defibrillator locations is hard to come by. People do not know where to find them and how to use them. The Circuit is a national database of defibrillators but it is incomplete, meaning that emergency services may not be able to direct someone to save a life.
In my debate today I said “Knowing where a defibrillator is and how to use one saves lives. Learning simple resuscitation skills can make all the difference in an emergency. Today, I’m calling on Ministers to listen and help save lives.”
You can read my full speech here and watch it here.
It was wonderful to meet the team from Age UK Bexley this month after their Parliament tour. It was encouraging to see such a great turnout and to discuss their work and the support they provide to older people in Erith and Thamesmead.
As always, please get in touch if you live in Erith & Thamesmead and would like me to arrange a tour. You can contact me via email on abena.oppongasare.mp@parliament.uk.
You can also see my social media post about this visit below or here.
It was a pleasure to meet the outstanding community volunteers at the Bexley Volunteer Excellence Awards this month. It was a wonderful evening at the Exchange Erith, hearing inspiring stories of volunteer work across Bexley.
I was also honoured to hand out the ‘Youth Volunteer Awards’ and to celebrate everyone’s great achievements in the last year. It was a fitting way to end Volunteers Week 2023. Congratulations to all the winners.
You can see my social media post about the event below or here.
I was very pleased to be able to visit Solus Repair Centre in Erith earlier this month.
I particularly enjoyed meeting young people from the apprenticeship programme and discovering all the opportunities available to develop technical skills and expertise in the sector.
You can see my social media post about the visit below or here.
Thank you to all constituents who have taken the time to write to me about the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide expansion.
I recently contacted the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to raise concerns about how the current proposals to extend the ULEZ will affect constituents of Erith and Thamesmead, many of whom do not have good links to public transport.
I welcomed the £110m for the new scrappage scheme to support Londoners on lower incomes, disabled Londoners, charities and micro-businesses as a welcome starting point. However, many of my constituents, including struggling families and businesses, are not covered by the scrappage scheme. I therefore strongly encouraged the Mayor to review of the scrappage scheme to support small businesses and to undertake an assessment of what additional support can be provided to families.
I will continue to monitor the impact of ULEZ expansion in Erith and Thamesmead, and pass on my constituent’s views to the Mayor directly.
Please find below my letter to the Mayor of London.
As the Member of Parliament for Erith and Thamesmead, I send my congratulations to King Charles III and Queen Camilla for their successful Coronation this month.
It was great to see so many people get involved from across the community, including with street parties and events to celebrate this historic occasion. I was grateful to join a reception for the King and Queen before their Coronation and meet with so many people doing important work across the United Kingdom.
I hope everyone in Erith and Thamesmead and across the country had a great Coronation weekend with family and friends.
https://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/TELEMMGLPICT000334920363_1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqz2lyrl4QQ-xkdZNot2ARJDXaG_3FkRG2WH2SGzlVXbs.webp425680Calum Pincheshttps://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SM-Logo-3.pngCalum Pinches2023-05-06 11:29:002024-07-12 15:32:18Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla
It was a privilege this month to be invited by the Stephen Lawrence Foundation to attend the Stephen Lawrence 30th Anniversary Memorial Service. This was a significant and inspirational occasion as we cherished Stephen’s memory and came together to spread a message of hope and change.
Those of us who were growing up in South East London at the time of Stephen’s murder know we have come a long way. However, we all know that we have so much further still to go. It is important that we all come together to honour Stephen’s life and commit to making sure the next 30 years are meaningfully different from the last.
I was also pleased to join Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE and Keir Starmer at their in-conversation event to discuss Stephen’s legacy and the great work of the Stephen Lawrence Foundation. It was especially great to hear about what they have been doing to help young people and what they plan to do in the future to inspire a more equitable, inclusive society.
Today I had the privilege of attending the #StephenLawrence memorial.
Those of us who were growing up in S.E. London at the time of Stephen’s murder know we have come a long way. But we have so much further still to go.
https://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Stephen-Lawrence-1.jpg9001600Abena Oppong-Asare MPhttps://www.abenaoppongasare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SM-Logo-3.pngAbena Oppong-Asare MP2023-04-30 14:12:002024-06-12 10:42:45Stephen Lawrence Day 2023
