Who cares
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Well over 400,000 elderly and disabled people in Britain rely on home care, and many of the care workers are from other parts of the world: Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Eastern Europe. Some are highly qualified professionals, but have moved into badly paid care roles because they are finding it hard to gain a foothold in their own professions in the UK. As the population ages, these care workers are providing an ever more vital service. Yet their voices are very rarely heard. Blanche Girouard accompanies some of them on their rounds to hear their stories.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello Morris. Oh there you are. Good morning. How are you today? All right thank you. |
| 0:08.2 | Okay. It's Tuesday morning and Vader Cayumbahoon has just arrived at a housing development for elderly people in South London |
| 0:16.0 | to help 83 year old Morris with his morning routine. |
| 0:20.0 | Do you like to have some breakfast? |
| 0:22.0 | Capati, an Englishman and his Capote. |
| 0:23.0 | An Englishman is Capote. |
| 0:25.0 | A Capotee, yeah? |
| 0:27.0 | Veda is 43 and from Zambia. |
| 0:30.0 | When she arrived in Britain, it came as a surprise to her to find that many families let strangers |
| 0:35.0 | look after their elderly relatives. |
| 0:37.0 | No disrespect for anybody, but in Africa we look after our own. Our culture is if you have an elderly parent you |
| 0:46.1 | look after them because they look after you. So we're gonna do porridge this |
| 0:51.0 | morning. Would you like some fruit on it? |
| 0:54.4 | Strawberries and banana on the porridge. |
| 0:56.7 | Would you like that? |
| 0:57.8 | I haven't got any strawberries of banana. |
| 1:00.2 | Oh, you'd be surprised. |
| 1:01.4 | I brought you some. |
| 1:03.0 | Around 1.5 million people in Britain work as domestic carers, |
| 1:08.0 | helping elderly and disabled people in their own homes |
| 1:11.0 | with tasks like washing, dressing and preparing food. |
| 1:15.0 | Many, like Veda, come from abroad, quite commonly from Africa, South Asia, the Philippines or Eastern Europe. |
... |
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