Project News
FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
Rural award for Wexford Roscommon: lone parents become authors CDP The Roscommon Women’s Network (RWN) writers group officially launched their very first collection of work over the summer at the network’s offices in the Old Mill, Castlerea. The book entitled ‘Mirror to the Soul’ is an impressive collection of short stories and poems written by eleven women. The writers group started out at the end of 2007 as a lone parent support group and have evolved into a team of women with a newly discovered passion for writing. Funding for the creative writing classes came from the Roscommon Integrated Development Company. For further information on how the group evolved or to get your hands on a copy of the book, please contact Roscommon Women’s Network CDP on 094-9621690.
Earlier this year South West Wexford CDP won an Irish Rural Link award for their outstanding contribution to Community Development in rural Ireland.
Blanchardstown Bonus for Volunteers! Volunteers who work at the Vincent De Paul shop in Blanchardstown got a pleasant surprise recently when members of the local Traveller
Crumlin CDP’s healthy focus Crumlin CDP in Dublin has been organising family swimming classes for €1 per person in recent months. The project is focused on health and ran a free 6-week ‘Stop Smoking Course’ in September/October. Meanwhile the boxing and youth club remains as busy as ever. [Editor’s note: Also see ‘Help Me Horace!’ on page 23]
Blakestown woodburners Members of Blakestown Men’s Project – supported by Blakestown CDP - are very proud of their work in wood-burning classes.
recession. It looks at global inequality and migration, intercultural relations during recession and debunks myths about global cultures. The workshops are aimed at people working in community development, adult and community education and others working in community based settings around the country. LYCS is a CDP based in Dublin’s North East inner city which has a strong focus on Development Education and can be contacted by any group around the country for advice. At the same time, Crosscare Migrant Project has warned that Irish attitudes towards immigrants are hardening as people search for someone to blame for the worsening economic situation. For people wanting to help, a booklet for immigrants produced by Crosscare giving practical information on education, healthcare, accommodation, culture and society is available in several languages online at www. livinginireland.ie More info on LYCS - T: 01-823-0860. E: racheldempsey@lycs.ie
SHEP returns to Nepal Community Employment scheme presented them with a variety of organic vegetables. The vegetables were grown on the Travellers Allotment. Our picture – from CE worker Tom Toner - shows Geraldine Collins of Blanchardstown Travellers CE (right) presenting a basket of mushrooms to shop manager Marie Murray (left) surrounded by shop volunteers and one of the gardeners. The CE scheme is sponsored by the local CDP, the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group.
Racism in Limerick; anti-racism in Longford In November, the Mayor of Limerick, Kevin Kiely, called for immigrants without jobs to be deported. The call was labelled racist and provoked outrage and a climbdown by the Mayor. However, the Mayor also received much support from people who view immigrants as a “problem”. The incident should lead to an invitation to the mid-west for Lourdes Youth and Community Services (LYCS) who are working with community groups to combat racism. While Mayor Kiely was making headlines in Limerick, LYCS was in Longford that same week to launch the first in a series of one-day workshops titled ‘On The Move’. The workshops are aimed at equipping community development workers to deal effectively with debates and conflict around the issue of migration during the Hidden homeless includes people involuntarily staying with family/friends
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Eight representatives from the Social and Health Education Project (SHEP), based in Ballincollig, Cork, travelled to Nepal in late November, to learn from a partner organisation in the Himalayan country. They travelled mostly at their own expense and the visit follows SHEP playing host to three Nepalese trainers in October. The Irish Aid-supported partnership began in September 2006 when SHEP linked up with a Nepalese NGO called ‘Sahakarmi Samaj’ (meaning ‘Interdependent Community’). Like SHEP, ‘Sahakarmi Samaj’ specialises in the training and deployment of skilled facilitators in the community. The work is very important as Nepal is emerging from a deadly ten-year civil conflict and villagers are now learning to manage their affairs through democratic deliberation and planned collective action. Separately, earlier this year, SHEP’s new Project Centre in Ballincollig was officially opened by Pat Healy of the HSE, the project’s core-funder. The project also receives funding under the Community Development Programme. More info: www.socialandhealth.com and www.sahakarmi.org.np