The Community Foundation for Ireland set up the Covid Response Fund to provide support to some of the most vulnerable groups in society. Travellers are among the groups at risk due to disproportionately high levels of underlying health conditions and often severely overcrowded living conditions. We have funded several organisations supporting and representing Travellers throughout the pandemic who are best placed to help alleviate the impact of Covid-19 on members of the Travelling community.
One such group is Clondalkin Travellers Development Group who deal with 350 families in the area. After initially providing sanitizer packs to 130 families, CTDG received an overwhelming amount of urgent requests for food due to people being out of work and without additional income. They received funding of €10,000 from our Covid Response Fund to address the immediate and present danger issue of food poverty and provide 200 non-perishable food packs worth €50 each to those most in need.
Aisling O’Connor of Balbriggan Traveller Project raised concerns about learning opportunities for Traveller children: “We are very concerned that Traveller children are at risk of severe educational disadvantage with the closing of schools. Low levels of literacy are very common in the Traveller community. As a result, many Traveller families are unable to support their children with home schooling, placing these children at a severe educational disadvantage and further widening the gap of inequality that exists between Traveller children and their settled counterparts.” They received €6,500 to fund the purchase of tablets for 50 families which will enable Traveller children to safely access interactive online learning resources while schools are closed.
Sligo Traveller Support Group received €7,000 in funding to provide mental health support services from qualified counsellors via zoom. As almost 40% of travellers in Sligo have underlying health conditions, this represents a particularly vulnerable group. Travellers are several times more likely to suffer mental health issues so the counselling services are vitally important as anxiety is at an all-time high. As well as this, it has funded power washing equipment to clean sites and sanitizer/cleaning products to help protect families.
If you would like to find out more information on how you can support causes close to your heart and improve the lives of vulnerable communities visit our Giving section here.