SvP’s vital work goes on despite impact of pandemic

Lifestyle – St Vincent de Paul, which helps families and individuals experiencing financial difficulties, has had a challenging year. Its normal income streams were curtailed while many of its volunteers had to step back for health reasons. But the organisation has risen to the challenge thanks to co-operation and community support, as volunteer Marie O’Donovan tells JUDY MURPHY.

Most of us are just a pay packet away from poverty. That unpleasant reality is the reason why St Vincent de Paul, the charitable organisation which was founded in Paris in 1833 and established in Ireland in 1844, continues to remains so relevant.

“A lot of people in this country live hand to mouth from week to week,” says Marie O’Donovan of St Vincent de Paul in Galway City. So, it’s easy to see how things can go wrong. But in many cases, it takes very little to get a person’s life back on track – help to fund a training course maybe, buying books for college or perhaps stepping in to liaise with a utility company when bills suddenly spiral out of control.

The ethos, says Marie, is “a hand up, not a hand out”.

She began volunteering in the group locally in 1991 and, having moved away for a time for work, got straight back in after returning to Galway in 2005.

Since 1844, St Vincent de Paul has helped Irish people through famines, a War of Independence, a Civil War, two World Wars and several economic recessions but 2020 brought its own unique challenges.

“We had 120 to 130 volunteers in the city before last March. Six of us were left on the ground once Covid came,” Marie says.

That’s because many of the group’s volunteers are retired people, some of them in the ‘cocooning’ age group. Others had underlying conditions or were living with someone who was vulnerable.

There are 26 Conferences (basic operating groups) in the city, an area which also covers Oranmore, Oughterard and Claregalway. Towns such as Tuam, Clifden and Gort have their own conferences – traditionally every parish had one, which reflects its Catholic origins, with members normally meeting once a week. But that hasn’t happened since March.

Once lockdown started, the six remaining city volunteers were faced with “a huge demand” according to Marie, adding that demand was high anyway.

“From September to March is always very busy,” she says. That’s because families and individuals need support as children and students return to education in September. That’s followed closely by the expense of Christmas, while winter also means extra heating costs for people.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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