Putting their hands up to help in the community

Cavan Volunteer Centre was represented in the St Patrick’s Day parade in Cavan Town by a group of asylum seekers who the centre matched with voluntary organisations in the area. Through their work with the centre, many of the volunteers were able to secure full-time employment.

One of those who took part in the parade was Kenosi Tshukudu, who is affectionately known as Rhyno by other volunteers. He arrived in Ireland from Botswana in 2022.

“I’ve been in Ireland for nine months, I came from Botswana. The transition has been smooth overall. I’ve really enjoyed working with the volunteer centre. It made the whole experience bearable,” he said.

“I got in touch with the volunteer centre online and started working with different organisations, for example, I worked with SOSAD doing bucket collections. I live in Cavan Town and work in Dublin as a warehouse operative. It’s my third week working there, and so far so good. I get a bus to Dublin every day. It takes an hour and 20 minutes. I hope to stay in Ireland long term,” Kenosi told the Celt.

He said staff at the Volunteer Centre put him in touch with other people in similar situations to his own.

“When I was here I didn’t know anybody so it’s a good start to get to know your local community, it’s a good way to network and get to know a few people to have a chat with or get a cup of coffee and try to have a normal life. I’ve made a lot of friends, they’re great like minded people to sit with and talk about different things. It makes the whole experience normal and makes me feel like I’m part of the community.”

Kenosi also said he enjoyed celebrating St Patrick’s Day, an occasion he was familiar with even before coming to Ireland.

“I bought a bucket hat to wear for the occasion. It’s a widely celebrated tradition all over the world. It’s covered by the media, even in Botswana.”

Robyn Sibutha, Tham Vincents and Mpaiwa MJ Mdlvu all arrived in Ireland from Zimbabwe in the summer of 2022. MJ says that working with the centre has helped them to integrate with the local community.

“We are all asylum seekers, came to Cavan on the same date, we came to Ireland in June. We got involved in a volunteer centre in September and did volunteer work with Sleep out Cavan, SOSAD and Cavan Tidy Towns.

“It’s great to help other people in our spare time. People didn’t know us beforehand and now they see us helping out, it has helped us to gain their trust,” he revealed.

Vanda Brady is the manager of Cavan Volunteer centre. She says that the centre gives people purpose while they were waiting to find work.

“They were a bit lost before they were transferred from Dublin to Athlone and now here. While they were waiting to find work, they were spending the whole day in bed, and said they couldn’t spend any more time doing nothing, so they got in contact

They said ‘I want to help, I can do things, is there something I can do?’ Word spread among the asylum seekers and we had lots of volunteers. I can see a big transformation in the members, some of them got involved in education, we linked them with CMETB.”

Vanda says the centre also helps asylum seekers to find employment.

“We have 20 who we helped find jobs. A lot found jobs through our board members, who have a lot of contacts. Recruiters are calling us all the time looking for people, it worked out really well.”