IRON MINES: In a time of practicing social distancing and a provincial state of emergency, with a mandate to stay indoors, L’Arche Cape Breton has learned to find different ways of doing what they do best – making known the gifts of people.
Their executive director says the local organization’s core members are coping with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, just like the rest of the global community.
“It’s impacting people’s lives,” Mukthar Liampo said. “L’Arche is a community that loves to gather together, so you can imagine for a community that loves to be together, in this time of physical distancing, [it] creates a lot of challenges.”
L’Arche supports 25 adults with developmental disabilities throughout its seven core programs, which have been closed now for the past three weeks.
With their buildings closed, Liampo said adjusting during that first week was hard on a number of their residents who were not able to go to work each day.
“Suspending our programs, that’s a big part of the day-to-day that’s been lost, and that’s what made the first week very difficult,” he said. “The second week was much better because we’re creatures of habit, and it already allowed us to find our own new rhythm that helps us to adjust to the current reality.”
Inside their six homes, L’Arche Cape Breton has been able to turn them into programs that cater to the unique needs of each individual when it comes to meaningful activity each day.
Music is a big thing for Liampo. When he makes his daily check-in on each house – he always makes sure there is music playing in the background to help inspire their souls.
“We still have a choice in choosing a positive note,” he said. “There’s a lot of negativity going on but we still have a choice to re-focus our attention to something positive.”
The organization typically has more than 80 members attend various activities on a weekly basis, but had to suspend its outreach programs and close The Gathering Place facility to comply with the strict health and saftey measures to flatten the curve.
For core members integrated throughout Orangedale, it’s been an adjustment.
They can’t work or join their friends, they miss the social aspects of their daily routines, and delegated assistants get groceries and take care of other activities that members might otherwise join, but Liampo remains positive.
“In the L’Arche community, we always say ‘We do need each other,’” he said. “And it’s so much more true in this time of COVID-19.”
Social distancing has also forced the organization to become more creative – both artistically and in means of operations – in bringing people together even though they’re not physically present.
Within the community, they’re trying as much as possible to stay connected with each other by using Zoom, where they host virtual weekly community gatherings and prayers on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
It has also allowed them to resume the training they provide for their assistants, so they “can continue with some normalcy.”
Liampo explained two staff members have recently returned to work from 14-day quarantines that were required due to travel.
“It was hard for them to not be present with people during that first week,” he said. “They were able to stay involved because everything had been switched virtually; they didn’t have to miss a prayer or a community gathering while in isolation.”
The local L’Arche community leader also expressed gratitude to their friends and neighbours in Iron Mines, Orangedale and Whycocomagh, noting they’re keeping in contact on a daily basis to see how each are doing.
Additionally, Liampo explained My Farmer’s Daughter is donating 10 per cent of their sales on all of their deliveries to L’Arche after hearing two of their biggest fundraising events had to be cancelled.
“We’re a community of relationships and this has just deepened those relationships with each other.”