Society seeks aid to help people over Christmas

MEMBERS of St Vincent de Paul in both Nenagh and Roscrea have issued an urgent call to support their annual Christmas appeal to help many local people who are going through extremely difficult times.

The call has been made by both the Nenagh Conference President, Harry Martin, and Roscrea Conference member and Regional and National Council, John Lupton, who both say the society is facing unprecedented challenges to help people through this coming Christmas due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"There are really some very hard cases out there and therefore we are appealing to everyone to give whatever they can afford," Harry Martin told The Guardian.

Mr Martin said every small donation is going to count as there was currently a record demand for help from the society.

"We have many people in the Nenagh area who are looking for assistance to purchase food, clothes and fuel," said Mr Martin.

He said one of the things he noticed particularly this year was the level of stress people in need were under. Quite a number too were struggling with illnesses such as cancer.

Mr Martin said the charity was under considerable strain to help people as all its main funding streams such as its summer collection and churchgate collection had been cancelled, while revenue for its charity shops had declined up due to the pandemic.

Mr Martin said there were many ways that people in Nenagh could help. One was by visiting the local Vincent's shop to give a donation. People could also Free Post the “National Office” blue envelope and write “Nenagh” in “Nominate Specific Conference/Town” field. (Watch out for this envelope from An Post).

Another way to contribute was through the Free Post “St Mary of the Rosary” blue envelope, which is available in the Vincent's shop in Mitchel Street.

Mr Martin said people could also send Gift Cards for clothes, food or toys to the Nenagh shop; host a fundraiser at work, even if working from home or online, or host a fundraiser at school.

Mr Martin said people in need of help this Christmas can contact SVP Nenagh on the regional helpline call answering service at 061-317327 and leave a voice message.

Meanwhile, John Lupton reports that the situation is equally challenging in Roscrea and surrounding areas. The pandemic had prevented the staging of all the traditional fundraising initiatives.

"It is a particularly difficult time, but some conferences will be circulating envelopes to allow people to respond to our appeal and there will be an envelop distributed from our national office that will allow people to specify the area to which they wish their contribution to go to," said Mr Lupton.

"We would be very grateful of any donation we get, however small. It has been a very difficult hear and we are trying to give as much help we can to people to help them out of dependency into self-sufficiency.

"We are also trying to support people in their education, so there is quite a demand on our funds on an ongoing basis, not just at Christmas time," said Mr Lupton.

He added: "We would also like to stress that people should contact us if they find themselves in need. While we may not be able to visit people this year we still respond to all requests but we will speak to people over the phone."

Mr Lupton said people in need in Roscrea and surrounding areas could contact the local conference helpline 087-4441835 or the regional office call answering service number in Limerick which is given above.

"We are very grateful to anyone who has contributed over the years, and we are conscious that this particular year might prove difficult for many people to give," said Mr Lupton.

Launching the Annual Appeal last week, Rose McGowan, SVP National President, said that between January and early November almost 112,000 requests for help had already been received. “With Christmas approaching we expect that number to increase substantially and exceed 160,000,” she said.

Other ways to donate are as follows:

- Online: svp.ie and nominate your local area;

- By phone: 0818 176 176 (ROI) or 028 9075 0161 (NI) and nominate your local area;

- By post: to SVP, PO Box 1234, Dublin 1, cheques made payable to ‘Society of St. Vincent de Paul’ or direct to a regional office, addresses can be found on www.svp.ie.

- Blue envelopes: Keep an eye out for special blue envelopes that will be in newspapers, churches and delivered to homes throughout the country.