Hello, I am Zakia, the founder of Invisible Cities.

I want to tell you about how we have been affected by the Covid-19 and what we plan to respond with your support!

We train people who have been affected by homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city. We provide employment and income to them, through our walking tours in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and York.

Unfortunately, because of the outbreak, all our activities have stopped. This has put our whole organisation at risk but our biggest concern remains our guides as they will become at risk financially. We will continue to support them so they stay safe, self-isolate if necessary and access the right advice. The good thing is that all of them (13 guides across the UK) are at least in temporary accommodation which means they can do all of this, which is not the case for other homeless people.

Even though all our tours are now suspended and we are thus generating no money, we would like to keep supporting our guides with food and basic item shopping during this uncertain time. We have a network of volunteers that will help us get these to them! With your support we can organise weekly deliveries to them all and make sure they have access to at least what they need for themselves and their families. Some of our guides have young children as well and so we want to react now, to make sure that the damage of COVID-19 is limited.

Thank you in advance for your compassion and support in this incredibly difficult and uncertain time.