{"id":35111,"date":"2020-03-20T11:12:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T10:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/?p=35111"},"modified":"2020-03-24T12:37:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T11:37:07","slug":"covid-19-europeans-are-no-longer-walking-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/covid-19-europeans-are-no-longer-walking-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 : Europeans are no longer \u201cwalking alone\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
Across Europ\u200be, people are \u200bshowing unprecedented solidarity in the face of the COVID-19 Coronavirus both in words and deeds since the continent became \u200bthe epicentre \u200bof the pandemic.<\/p>\n
To symbolize this renewed spirit of solidarity,\u00a0160 European radio stations simultaneously played the song \u201cYou\u00b4ll never walk alone\u201d, best known as the battle song of the English football team Liverpool.<\/p>\n
As France and Belgium have joined Italy and Spain in confinement\u200b, hundreds of people have stepped out on balconies at 8 p.m. to applaud and thank health care workers for their exceptional contributions.<\/p>\n
Italians have not only initiated choir singing from balcony to balcony, but also group playing where each of the musicians contributes from their terraces or windows.<\/p>\n
Not to be outdone, in Spain\u200b, professional opera singers from all over the country have joined the viral movement and are performing from their balconies and posting on social media.<\/p>\n
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On the Facebook page Cor-ona<\/a>, the Welsh have been encouraged to record their singing and hundreds of people from 3 to 90 years old have responded enthusiastically.<\/p>\n Although Germany has so far escaped Italian-style \u201clockdown\u201d of its citizen\u200bs, there are countless examples of neighbours helping one another, for example\u200b, by doing groceries, babysitting or taking pet dogs for a walk. People are sharing these acts of kindness on social media with the hashtag #Nachbarschaftschallenge.<\/p>\n The same can be said of most Western European countries. In France, for instance, there is a high number of solidarity inter-aid groups of parents, neighbours and villagers with names such as \u00ab\u00a0 S\u2019entraider face au coronavirus \u00e0 Toulouse\u00a0<\/a>\u00bb,\u00a0 or \u00ab\u00a0Coronavirus Covid-19 Groupe Fran\u00e7ais\u00a0<\/a>\u00bb. In these groups, people can ask for, or offer, volunteer services from grocery shopping to helping the elderly or taking care of the pets of hospitalised people.<\/p>\n In Cologne\u200b, the \u201cZusammen gegen Corona\u201d action-group organized by school children and other young people, offers help to the elderly and families, for example by taking care of groceries and babysitting children of medical staff and emergency workers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n