Born on this date in 1911 was Reverend Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans. 10 things you might not know about the Samaritans.
First of all, who was Chad Varah? He was a Church of England vicar who was named after Saint Chad, the founder of an 8th century church. Varah studied at Keble College, Oxford and Lincoln Theological College. He was ordained in 1936. In his spare time, he wrote for children's’ magazines.
The name of the charity comes from the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, as told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It tells of a traveller, presumably Jewish, who is robbed and left for dead by the side of a road. The man in distress is ignored by the people who might be expected to stop and help, while the Samaritan, a member of a group of people usually antagonistic towards Jews, does stop to help.
So Samaritans sounds like the kind of name a vicar might choose for a charity like this, right? Well, Varah didn’t choose it. It came from the headline of a Daily Mirror article abut the work he was doing published on on 7 December 1953 under the headline ‘Telephone Good Samaritans’.
It all started when Varah conducted a funeral service for a young girl who’d committed suicide because she believed she had a sexually transmitted disease when in fact she only had her period. Her story had a profound effect on Varah, knowing that if only the girl had had someone to talk to without judgement, her death could have been prevented.
Some years later, in 1953, Varah was appointed Rector of St Stephen Walbrook church in central London. And the church had a Telephone. Looking at the instructions for calling the emergency services, and the church’s phone number, MAN 9000, he had the idea of a telephone helpline with a memorable number for suicidal people who needed to talk. That same phone is still on display at St Stephen’s church.
Today, the charity has 201 branches across Great Britain and Ireland and despite its origins, is not a religious organisation. Nor is it political and is deliberately organised without regard to national boundaries.
The Samaritans helpline operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and was the first 24-hour telephone helpline to be set up in the UK. It’s free to call. 116 123 is the number, certainly in Ireland, which since that is where I’m based is the only number Google would show me. However, Mind.org.uk gives the same number in its directory of services so it looks like it’s the same for both countries; but if you know different, don’t blame me, blame Google.
There’s more to Samaritans than the helpline. There’s also an email service which started in 1994 and received over 206,000 emails in 2011. People can also get help via text, letter, minicom, or face-to-face at a branch. The Samaritans also work in prisons and at festivals and events.
One in five calls to Samaritans is from someone with suicidal feelings. Which means four in five are from people who are not at risk of suicide but are still looking for support and a listening ear. In 2004 Chad Varah himself spoke about being somewhat disillusioned by that. He said, "It's no longer what I founded. I founded an organisation to offer help to suicidal or equally desperate people. The last elected chairman re-branded the organisation. It was no longer to be an emergency service, it was to be emotional support".
In 1972 there was a TV series about the Samaritans. It was called called The Befrienders and featured fictional stories about people who reached out to the charity for help. 11 episodes were made before it was cancelled. That was enough to raise awareness and the result was an increase in calls and also in people wanting to volunteer.
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