London: Farm Street parishioner wins community award

Yasko Kurahachi with Alexander Armstrong during the presentation

Source: Jesuits in Britain/Facebook

Yasko Kurahachi, President of Farm Street Church's 'St Vincent de Paul Society', has won an award for her work helping the homeless in the Mayfair parish.

Contrary to the clichés about Mayfair, homelessness has significantly increased in recent months.

In September last year, police were called in to clear an encampment of Romanian and Bulgarian homeless on Park Lane known locally as 'tent city'.

Yasko has been a volunteer with the St Vincent de Paul Society soup run, based at Farm Street Church, for 10 years.

Every Monday night Yasko and her team take a trolley to Oxford Street, Berkeley Square and Hyde Park, giving out soup, sandwiches and other essentials such as hats, gloves, sleeping bags and toiletries. Together, Yasko and the other volunteers help around 50 homeless people every week.

Yasko received her Mayfair & St James's Community Award from actor and TV presenter Alex Armstrong at an event held at the Grosvenor House Hotel last weekend.

Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, parish priest at Farm Street, said: "I am delighted that Yasko and her team have been recognised in this way. Much of their work goes unnoticed outside the parish but it makes such a difference to the people they are helping."