Jill Green
Artist friends Jill Green and Nimmi Naidoo have created a temporary installation that can be visited in Bonn Square, Oxford, 8-16 May 2021.
They felt a strong leading to honour and create a visible tribute to all the keyworkers who have kept us going by simply going to their work during the COVID pandemic. The list would include care staff everywhere, bin collectors, doctors, cleaners, pharmacists, bus drivers, nurses, shop workers, and delivery drivers who have died of COVID-19 as a result of just doing their jobs. We could name many more …
The Office for National Statistics reports that between 9 March and 28 December 2020, a total of 883 health and social care workers, 213 taxi cab drivers, 157 nurses, and 180 sales assistants died of COVID-19 in England and Wales. These people alone are equivalent to 4 plane crashes with no survivors.
With these shocking figures of deaths of people faithfully working to serve the public, we have been enraged about NHS underfunding over the last 10 years and have felt oceans of sadness.
We felt strongly that these people should be publicly recognised. We both worked in the NHS and we created this tangible tribute because we felt we owed it to our colleagues and all those who have worked in close contact with the public during this highly dangerous time. We hope people will reflect on the many lives prematurely terminated; the never-ending grief of their children, families, and friends; and the years unlived by so many who were just doing their job.
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Forty-Three e-Newsletter • Number 504 • April 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW