Participants in the Beoirs Pathways to Progression Training Programme, organised by Bray Travellers CDP. The aim was to empower people through concentrating on developing core skills in health care, literacy and job-skills.
Bray Beoirs take the pathway together THE word ‘Beoirs’ derives from the Cant word for woman. The aim of the Beoirs Pathways to Progression Training Programme, in Bray, Co. Wicklow, is to empower participants by improving their core skills such as literacy, health care and work related skills. The course runs for 40-weeks on a parttime basis with support from Bray Travellers
CDP. As a result, 14 women are learning about everything from art & design to office procedures, healthcare, and computers. The participants face the challenge of submitting work for FETAC certification – for some this is the first certification ever achieved in their lives. Tutor, Majella Breen, said the course makes a real difference: "For example, several
Staff members working with Bray Travellers CDP: Jim O’Brien, project co-ordinator, Mick Mason, outreach worker, Majella Breen, women's programme manager, Christy Moorehouse, outreach worker; Front - Helen Kinsella, project administrator, Carmel O'Brien, CE worker, Joan Moorehouse, CE worker.
changing ireland
5
women who have come through the course have found that they can cope better with queries from their children regarding their homework. This was formerly a source of anxiety and embarrassment." Majella explained how one woman who did the course went on to do a Primary Healthcare Course and became involved in a national social survey of all traveller families. Meanwhile, another participant was taken on by a local community creche and aimed to progress through FETAC and become a fully qualified childcare worker. The Beoirs programme also focuses on personal development and teamwork and the course is delivered with Traveller culture in mind. In addition, it aims to counteract many of the barriers such as: discrimination, isolation, lack of self-esteem, childcare and numerous other barriers endured by Traveller women. This is being achieved by the development of social and interpersonal skills and improved access to information. Bray Travellers CDP are celebrating in recent months, having acquired a new userfriendly premises. Previously, the project was housed in a couple of narrow rooms up a steep staircase. There was neither room for wheelchair-users nor people with prams. The project’s main aim is to promote community development responses to needs in the Traveller community in the Bray area and also to promote the voice of Travellers in tackling prejudice, exclusion and unequal treatment.