Dr Shaikh Mehdee Mohammad

MSc Disaster Management, 2009 & PhD Geography, 2015

Dr. Shaikh Mehdee Mohammad studied for an MSc in Disaster Management and a PhD in Geography at Northumbria. In his home country of Bangladesh he has recently been reunited with his secondary school friends to provide food assistance to those members of society who are vulnerable and unemployed due to the nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The group are alumni of Harimohan Government High School in Chapai Nawabganj, situated in northwestern Bangladesh, and passed their Secondary School Certificate Exam (equivalent to GCSE) in 1994 together.

As part of their volunteer activity they have provided food packs to 135 vulnerable families with each food pack including 10 kilos of rice, 3 kilos of potato, 1 kilo of lentil, 1 litre of soybean oil, 1 kilo of onion, 1 kilo of salt, one soap and BDT 100.00 in cash.

Sarah Graham

BSc Adult Nursing, 2012; PG Dip Midwifery, 2015 & MSc Practice Development, 2018

Sarah is a dual trained nurse and midwife currently working in an early pregnancy unit supporting women through pregnancy complications prior to 16 weeks. She has been redeployed to A&E to support my colleagues on the front line. In her absence, the early pregnancy service will be run by consultant colleagues who are able to do so due to the cancellation of elective lists.

Women accessing the service are often experiencing problems such as miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy so are already incredibly vulnerable and require an immense amount of support. Between the team they are finding ways to navigate these scary times without compromising on the care that provided.

Sarah commented: "I have always been incredibly proud to be a nurse and midwife but in these past few weeks I have been completely overwhelmed by the selflessness, passion and commitment of all my colleagues working in healthcare provision. Together we will overcome this and be stronger and even more united on the other side."

Dan Simmonite

BA (Hons) Media & Journalism, 2019

Dan started as the Media Officer for York City Football Club after graduation and so far the Coronavirus has been the most challenging thing he has had to deal with from a marketing and communications perspective. It's been a very hard period for all professional football clubs, but York City have contributed where possible to bring some positive stories to the community within York.

Dan commented "When our game was called off due to COVID-19, we had a load of food which was prepaired for hospitality and directors at the game. Instead of letting this go to waste I arranged with the Club Chef to have the food delivered to a local charity which houses vulnerable people in York called Changing Lives. I thought this was especially important with the amount of people who are homeless and at risk of this virus.

I also had quite a demand for the unused matchday programmes which I produce for every home game. I made the decision to sell these online for people to purchase with an added minimum donation to the NHS Charities COVID-19 Urgent Appeal."

Nikoleta Alexopoulou

MSc Health, Safety & Environmental Management, 2018

Nikoleta lives in Greece where the virus outbreak in Greece is significantly slower than in most European countries. At 99 documented cases, all schools and universities closed. Four days later all coffee shops, food and drink establishments, indoor sports and leisure facilities closed. Next day all non essential establishments closed too. A week after, all unnecessary movement was banned and citizens had to send an text or fill a form prior to their exit.

She works at an LPG storage and distribution facility in a Greek island which meant that she still had to go to work, and so decided to help others. Nikoleta commented:

"I decided I could help others, since I was already out of my house on a daily basis. I volunteered in a local charity, to go grocery shopping and fill in prescriptions for people who should not be exposing themselves, such as sick or older people and families with young children."

Zhao Yii Joanne Chin

BA (Hons) Graphic Design, 2013

Joanne Chin runs a small design studio, Ideology, in her hometown of KotaKinabalu, Malaysia. She currently leads a small team of seven people including an intern with services ranging from branding, motion graphics, logo design, social media content creation, marketing materials, prints design, food photography, websites, environmental graphics, project management and more.

Ideology was started in 2018 and has already worked with over 120 clients, they are also due be appointed as State designer soon. Due to the pandemic, Malaysia imposed the Movement Control Order so Joanne thought that Ideology should help in the community. This led to them working on a project to create posters free of charge to all of our previous clients in the hope that this would at least help them with their brand awareness during these trying times. The agency has also been working daily to create awareness posts to remind citizens to stay at home and do their part to flatten the curve.

Richard Kilpatrick

BA Politics, 2013

Richard is an elected member of the City Council in Manchester and active in his local community. During the pandemic he has been out and about servicing the 15,000 people he represents by making sure that the most vulnerable in the community have what they need with this including working with government, councils and charities to map where elderly and vulnerable members of the community live.

Richard comments: "We have been running emergency food runs from the local mosque including multiple faith groups. We have also been working with local businesses to make sure they have all the info they need to get their workforce out the other end of this crisis.

Next up is working with the government to put these people in contact with a company based in my constituency that can help with the harvest crisis. As we approach harvest there will not be enough people in the agriculture industry which will have an impact on food supply. Lots to do but remember to stay safe, support local businesses and look after your neighbours".

Suman Dhun Shrestha

MSc Disaster Management & Sustainable Development, 2013

The Government of Nepal announced the country lockdown on 23 March 2020, and during this challenging time Suman decided to become engaged in delivering an Online Course in Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) with a case study on Faecal Transmission of COVID-19. Speaking of this research he commented "Few studies found in Netherlands and China hint at the presence of Coronavirus strains in the faecal and waste-water streams. This route of transmission is significant for developing countries, where open defecation is still on practice with open drainage connected to rivers and poorly functioning waste-water treatment facilities. It could surge next level of epidemic if the transmission route of faeces and waste-water happens, so knowledge sharing, learning and preventive measures are important in this regard.

There are 198 applications from 25 different countries in the three month long course. Out of them, 100 applicants have been already provided access to the course in e-learning platform of Kathmandu University. Besides, the online course I am voluntarily providing input to network of national water-sanitation experts initiated by the former Environment Minister of Nepal.

Hannah Strong

BA (Hons) Marketing Management, 2011

Hannah is the Head of Marketing at two local marketing agencies. Silverbean and AGY47 (a global affiliate marketing agency and a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO/PPC/CRO for eCommerce brands in the UK) with these businesses currently working alongside local Newcastle charity, Family Gateway. Speaking of this work she says:

"We have a long standing relationship with Family Gateway, and the charity supports local families in poverty. It is currently aiming to fundraise £10,000 to help get a "meals on wheels" style service up and running to continue to help those families during the pandemic. Silverbean has donated a substantial amount to this but we're continuing to raise awareness via our social platforms and through PR as we'd love to help the charity meet its goal over the next few weeks.

The idea is to provide three home cooked meals per week to families we support who struggle under normal circumstances but are likely to need even more help at the moment, especially where children would normally get a hot meal at school but may not have access to that at home. The donations support the cost of the meals including the ingredients, packaging, cooking staff and deliveries."

Saika Shahadat

MSc International Development, 2018

 Saika is the CEO of Pekua, Cox's Bazar as well as the Executive Magistrate. During the pandemic, he has distributed health and safety products to more than 35 000 people. On top of that, he has set up isolation centres and wash blocks and provided financial air to those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. 

Victoria Shepherd 

BSc (Hons) Child Nursing, 2020

Victoria studied for three years specialising in Paediatric nurse training. She was one of the thousands of student nurses and midwives who agreed to join the NHS front line register during these unprecedented times to help in the fight against COVID-19.

Speaking about her experience Victoria commented: "This is not how I imagined my final 6 months of nursing student life to be like, however it is a challenge I am apprehensive yet excited about and I am very proud to be apart of this inspirational workforce. I have currently been placed on a paediatric respiratory ward, where I am learning so much and working along side an amazing and dedicated team of professionals who are all very supportive and I hope we can all get back to some sort of 'normality' very shortly whatever that maybe".