The Guardian journalist Aamna Modhin tells Rachel Humphreys about reporting from Church End, a small neighbourhood in Brent, north London, which has a large Somali population. In early March, residents began to fall ill from coronavirus, eventually resulting in 36 deaths. Locals believe the cluster, which is the second worst in England and Wales according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, does not account for the true scale of the devastation, as it does not factor in people who work in Church End but live nearby.
Aamna met Rhoda Ibrahim, a 57-year old community leader who has been left devastated by the deaths of so many people she knew. The virus thrived on the structural inequalities that Ibrahim has spent much of her life fighting against. It flourished in a housing crisis that was 40 years in the making, stark in-work poverty that left many struggling to put food on the table, and deeply entrenched racial inequalities. The council leader, Muhammed Butt, believes the government’s failure to provide tailored support to communities such as those in Brent worsened the situation, and that the country should have gone into lockdown earlier.
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Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
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