Greenland’s emerging social conscience – Voluntary food delivery to people experiencing homelessness in Nuuk

• Published in: Qualitative Social Work
• Main Author: Arnfjord, Steven
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2020
• Subjects: Greenland; Nuuk
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973209; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1473325020973209; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1473325020973209

Greenland experienced a 5-week lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis. The lockdown effectively took out all public social support and food supply for people experiencing homelessness in the capital Nuuk. This woke up Greenland’s social conscience in the form of a local NGO’s mobilization of voluntary social helpers. Luckily nobody in the homeless environment got infected and suffered needlessly. From a social policy perspective, we can take three experiences away from the pandemic. Firstly, a clear learning experience from this crisis was the need to redefine the broad societal understanding of Greenland a country with a universal welfare system. The second experience was that social work comes in many shapes and forms. Finally, the experience illustrated what could take place when the political and administrative system are too slow to react in times of crisis. It kickstarted the civil society step up and help fellow citizens. In the end NGO’s need to reports back and inform the public system to ensure better social emergency response in the future.