{"id":165,"date":"2021-11-19T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=165"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:53:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:53:10","slug":"transitioning-through-lockdown-with-my-buddy-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/transitioning-through-lockdown-with-my-buddy-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"Transitioning through lockdown with my buddy Maria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello, everyone. My name is Saihan Islam and I’m passionate about campaigning for more understanding and support for people with disabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lockdown was tough for us all, and since the pandemic started, finding new ways to do the things we love has been difficult. Luckily for me, I have had my\u00a0Sense Virtual Buddy<\/a>\u00a0to talk to and have fun with. This has meant so much to me. It’s given me something to look forward to each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transitioning through lockdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before the pandemic, I was always busy balancing schoolwork, my youth clubs and my mental health sessions. It could be difficult juggling my school and personal life, but I loved it. When lockdown started, I felt quite isolated and scared. Usually, when things make me anxious, I go to my mental health sessions. It helps me to feel a lot better. But when these stopped, it made me feel even more anxious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have had a few Sense buddies over the years, which I’ve loved. I always enjoy the sessions. We usually go out into the community and do all sorts of cool activities. As various lockdowns drew closer, I soon realised that this was going to have to stop too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My buddy helped me through all the uncertainty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through all this change, Maria, my buddy, was fantastic. Instead of arranging trips out, we started to arrange video chats. When we learned how to share a screen, we started having our own movie sessions too. I’m passionate about politics and history, and The King’s Speech became a favourite of ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a volunteer buddy is so important to me. Especially when other services had to stop. Maria is someone that I can talk to outside of my family which is great when I am feeling anxious. She is always kind and helpful. Also, I learn a lot from her. If it wasn\u2019t for my buddy, I wouldn\u2019t know much about Dunkirk or the Ottomans! I still get worried about things from time to time but Maria helps me take my mind off things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future looks bright<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When this is all over, there are lots of things that I am looking forward to doing. Seeing Maria for our sessions is definitely high on my list, but I really want to go back and see everyone at the Sense office in London. Sense volunteers have helped me so much and I would love to volunteer my time too and help other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Maria, and all the other Sense Buddies out there for all your hard work and dedication!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Find a volunteer Buddy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sense Virtual Buddying service is free for anyone with disabilities looking for a friend in the UK. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n Learn more<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic brought about a lot of uncertainty. Through all this change, Maria, my buddy, was fantastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[86],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-saihan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}