Interviewer

Well, good afternoon. Could I ask you your name?

 

Udo Bauer

Yes. Good afternoon. I’m Udo Bauer. I’m from the German, YMCA in London.

 

Interviewer

And we are here to talk about which friends group?

 

Udo Bauer

We’re talking about the Friends of St. Mary’s Hospital, in Paddington.

 

Interviewer

Thank you. Could I ask your age?

 

Udo Bauer

57.

 

Interviewer

Well, it’s great to meet you and I it’s a slightly different interview, I feel, today. And what I’m interested in is that I’ve already heard from St. Mary’s, that there is a link between here, and them. So could you explain a bit about what your role is, and what that link looks like?

 

Udo Bauer

I’m a programme secretary and Chaplain at the German YMCA, here in Paddington. And we do get volunteers, and Zivildienst, which is the civil replacement service if you didn’t go to the draft, if you didn’t want to do military service, you did a civil service, and you could do any charitable thing. Some chose to come to the German YMCA, in London to help us. And there, they helped me run the programmes. They helped me visit elderly people, but they also helped at other charities to get a wider experience. And St Mary’s was one of these wider experience where our civvies and volunteers routinely went there every week, sometimes just the morning, sometimes two shifts depending also on how many volunteers we had, and they were helping making sandwiches, and selling them, to raise funds for the Friends of St. Mary’s.

 

Interviewer

So I’m interested in that narrative, you talked about how this was an option instead of doing service in the armed forces. Is, is that still the case that people have that option, or has this evolved now?

 

Udo Bauer

No. when I first came here 25 years ago, we still had military conscription that every male who was of age had to be tested, and when he, was found fit enough, then he had to serve in the armed forces. And if he didn’t want that, he did a conscientious objection to the military service and did something civil, instead. There are loads of options in Germany that you can help the Red Cross, or St John’s Ambulance, or disabled groups, anything. And there’s also the option to do the same service for similar organisations, somewhere aboard. And, and so some found us, and we found this opportunity that we could get a volunteer, or a helper, and give them an opportunity to widen their horizons, and see completely different parts of the world. And that has been very popular. We always had our numbers full. They came to help us run fundraising programmes, running leisure time programmes, helping at the local school as classroom assistants. And that’s been like that for a long time.

Interviewer

Has the current pandemic, of course, there’s been a lot less traveling around…Is that programme still running? Are people still coming over? How does that work now?

 

Udo Bauer

Now that it’s just the volunteer service, after the conscription ended, it’s still running. And in 2020, our volunteers very suddenly left for Germany, while it was still possible. Then for some months we had to close down, nothing happened. We planned to gradually open up again in 2021. It was very difficult, a with the pandemic rules and with the travel arrangements and with the paperwork for all that. And also with the Brexit rules, you have to have a special visa and, and work permit to do that now. When Britain was still in the EU, anybody could volunteer for us. And it was simple. Now, we have one colleague who looks after the paperwork and she says, it’s a lot of paperwork to get the permissions that are needed to come here. But since the last days of December, 2020, we had continuously always, two or three volunteers here helping us. Unfortunately, the Friends of St Mary’s were not able to do anything with their help, because their shops had been closed. So we couldn’t help there. We would’ve loved to. Our volunteers, helped with the Imperial College Helpers instead, and pointed people to where to find which service in St. Mary’s

 

Interviewer

Excellent. I recognise that many Friends Groups have sort of struggled to work out what their current contribution is going to look like. Now, before we popped in to see you today, was there anything that you thought you might want to tell me that I haven’t given you the opportunity to say?

 

Udo Bauer

I’m afraid not.

 

Interviewer

Okay, well it’s been lovely to meet you and thank you ever so much.