Crafty help for the old

THOUSANDS of Britain's pensioners live alone with scarcely any human contact from one week to the next. It doesn't take long for them to begin to feel useless and for life to seem pretty pointless.
Many people are anxious to help, but visiting for the sake of visiting can he an awkward experience all round. Plenty of caring people would like to help but feel too shy or embarrassed to call on elderly neighbours without an excuse.
Help the Aged is now operating a nationwide scheme called "Helpage Plus" to give the housebound elderly a new purpose in life as well as ensuring regular visits.
The basic idea is simple and it Involves everyone in the community — young or old, mobile or housebound, well-off or managing on a tight budget.
Helpers of all ages ask their elderly neighbours to support the work of the Helpage Plus group by using their skills to produce home-made goods of all sorts. If expense is a problem, the group arranges for craft materials to be supplied.
There is a growing demand in this mass production age for the home-made, the slightly different, the crafted.
It leads to benefit all round. The "makers" realise that what they are doing matters to someone other than themselves and that the group are relying on their help. They know that they are making a worthwhile contribution to the work of a major charity — often the first opportunity they have had for making such a gesture in many years.
Anyone interested in bringing Helpage Plus to their neighbourhood should contact Janet South, Help the Aged, PO Box 11 l, Cambridge, CBI lEA. (Telephone Cambridge (0223) 64115).