MAKE A DIFFERENCE:Four charities will have an extra pair of hands for 12 months as a group of highly motivated volunteers swap their day jobs for community projects, writes Róisín Ingle.
MORE THAN 150 people applied to the Vodafone Foundation's World of Difference programme for a chance to quit their desk jobs and work for a year with the charity of their choice. It's the second time the mobile phone company has offered this opportunity in Ireland, paying a €40,000 salary, plus expenses, for each successful applicant.
Last year the winners made a huge difference: Michael Tighe in the area of suicide and self-harm, with Pieta House; John McKeever in prisoner rehabilitation with JobCare; Anne Cody in patient empowerment with Ceart; and Des McDonnell, who provided IT facilities to schools in Africa with Camara.
This year the judging panel, made up of consultant Niamh O'Carroll, Vodafone's Jan Mottram, broadcaster Ray D'Arcy, and myself, had a difficult time choosing, but in the end four people stood out for their commitment, passion and determination to make a world of difference.
According to Jan Mottram, the fact that two of the winners are engaged in projects concerned with the integration of asylum seekers and refugees, "speaks volumes about just how important the issue has become in contemporary Ireland".
THE WINNERS:
PAUL CLABBY, GALWAY
GROW
GROW is a mental health organisation with a national network of more than 130 groups. Paul Clabby first came into contact with his chosen charity after years of suffering from anxiety attacks, which led to depression. His problems began when he was a child. "I'd be asked to read out loud in school and would clam up," he says. These panic attacks slowly got worse, and after college, the pattern became one of moving from job to job. "Avoidance was a big thing." When simple interaction with colleagues became difficult, he would isolate himself.
"The situation had got so bad that I would hide in the toilets at work rather than interact with people," he told us. "I was on a written warning from my boss when I went to my first GROW meeting three years ago."
He describes this first meeting as a turning point which helped him cope, for the first time, with the mental health issues he had been struggling with since he was a boy. Now he wants to help other young people. "Services and support for young adults are limited and hard to access, which doesn't make sense when you take into account the fact that the majority of mental illness begins before the age of 24," he says.
GROW members, or "Growers", attend weekly two-hour meetings where they learn about the GROW programme, which was inspired by a group of former mental health sufferers in Australia more than 50 years ago. Each group meeting is free, confidential and open to all. Members provide mutual support in undertaking daily tasks, which Clabby says, "encourages a healthy change in thinking, behaviour and relationships".
His goals for the year include modification of the GROW programme to better suit young adults across the country, creating links with other organisations in the area and holding a conference at the end of the year to promote the new programme. He also wants to produce a DVD and a book of testimonies filled with the stories of young people who have been helped by the organisation "so their stories might help others".
DR BLANAID MEE, KILDARE
BIOBANK IRELAND TRUST, DUBLIN
This charity was set up three years ago to provide a bridge between cancer research and care. When she was working as an assistant lab technician at the histopathology department of St James's Hospital, Dr Blanaid Mee was introduced to biobanking, a global initiative pioneered in Spain. "When I heard about it, I was really surprised that in Ireland we didn't have an effective way of storing tissue samples from cancer patients," she says.
A biobank (bank of life) is a low-temperature freezer unit for the collection, freezing and storage of small tissue or blood samples. At the moment "biospecimens" are collected in different ways, depending on the hospital. Mee says samples can often "sit idly" in freezers for long periods while researchers wait for grant funding. The method of collection may not always be catalogued, leaving the scientific findings based on these samples open to question.
"I believe we have an obligation to ensure tissue and blood donations contributed by cancer patients, at a difficult time in their lives, are handled in the best possible way," she says. "Research is a vital tool in fighting cancer to ensure early detection, optimum treatment and, more recently, categorising people according to their probability of developing cancer."
While the work may appear to be purely research-based, the formation of a biobank has wide-ranging benefits for patients. "Cancer treatment is becoming less generic and more personalised, with the type of cancer dictating the course of treatment," she says. "Biobank Ireland will ensure patients samples are stored in optimum conditions, so in the event of a patient having a recurrence of cancer, their original cancer specimens can be used for comparative purposes and to help determine best approach for their next treatment."
Mee's main goal for the year is to prove that an Irish cancer biobank is the best way forward in terms of improved cancer patient care and improving the quality of cancer research. She will set up a biobank network between three hospitals - Beaumont, St James's and Galway University Hospital so that the model can eventually be rolled out nationwide. The initiative already has public support, but according to Prof Eoin Gaffney of St James's Hospital, the funding is unlikely to be provided for at least another few years. "This one year of funding will change the landscape of cancer patient care and research in Ireland," says Mee.
HELEN O'GRADY, CLARE
DORAS LUIMNI, LIMERICK
Doras Luimni is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) serving asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. In 2003, O'Grady went back to college as a mature student to upgrade her skills, gaining a degree in social studies and social care. She is currently completing a Master's degree in migration and diaspora studies at University College Cork and has been working with immigrant communities.
"I am examining the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on both the sending and receiving countries," she says. Her dissertation is on barriers to employment for foreign nationals in Limerick. A recent three-month placement with Doras Luimni, she says, "increased my awareness of the barriers to the labour market that many immigrants encounter".
Working with some of the 500-strong migrant community in Limerick, she has seen how the asylum-seeking process affects these communities. "Because they are not allowed to work while their application is being processed - and this could be anything up to five years - people are less motivated, they lose self-esteem and are deskilled, in addition to having language barriers and not having the qualifications they earned in their own countries recognised here," she says.
Outside of the asylum-seeking process, there are also cultural issues for employers, who are often not able to check references and have difficulty taking on people who have no Irish work experience.
These are some of the issues O'Grady hopes to tackle during her World of Difference year. She will develop pre-employment workshops. and will meet employers and the local chamber of commerce to talk about getting work experience for immigrants. She hopes to develop a mentoring programme linking people up with volunteers from the Irish community who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. "It's a huge challenge, yes, but if we don't try now, we are going to see the second generation of immigrants facing difficulties," she says. "We have an opportunity to get it right in Ireland if we put the supports in place now."
AILISH IRVINE, MAYO
MAYO INTERCULTURAL ACTION (MIA)
This charity represents new communities in the county and promotes the positive effect of interculturalism in Irish society. Living close to an asylum seekers' hostel in her home of Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, mother of three Ailish Irvine was struck by the contrast between the lives of those families and her own. When she became a volunteer with MIA through an after-school homework club for the children of asylum seekers and refugees, the level of poverty shocked her. She came to the judging panel with a proposal to improve the lives of the "new Irish" - migrant workers, refugees, more than 300 asylum seekers and 100 refugees from Burma who have been living in Mayo since last September.
Her goals for the year include working with existing training providers and employers to address particular disadvantages in relation to migrant communities. She will design "progression routes" for young people going from school to further education, training and employment.
"For me, the biggest thing is to help people get into employment and to get their confidence back," she says. "They don't have links within the system, many can't get to interview stage, never mind get a job. They need so much assistance, with everything from getting their CVs done properly to negotiating the education system.
"I see it becoming much more of an issue because of the economic downturn," she says. "I think people are going to start resenting immigrants, and seeing them as competition, which is why providing support is even more important."
On her application, Irvine included a quote from a Congolese refugee which she thought summed up the issues faced by asylum seekers in Ireland. "I've lost my past. The future doesn't exist and they are killing my present. What should I expect? I am just a refugee to them. But eyes that have seen mountains are not frightened by hills."