In Extraordinary Times, People Do Extraordinary Things..

There's no denying that the last few months have been tough, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and the evenings becoming brighter will certainly help!

Communities have really come together to help each other out when needed during these difficult times and we want to recognise and celebrate some of the groups around Waterford that have been making a difference.

Along with Waterford City and County Council, we're showcasing the ordinary people in our communities that have gone above and beyond for those in need of help - ordinary people doing extraordinary things!

Below, you can hear the stories of just some of those people and groups.

The Cheekpoint and Faithlegg Development Group

The Cheekpoint and Faithlegg Development Group is a long established community organisation, which has been in operation for over 10 years. Its vision is to 'help to sustain a positive, inclusive and vibrant community spirit'. The group, working in partnership with others, aim to maintain the environment, strengthen community connections and create new possibilities and opportunities.

In 2018, CFDG initiated a Community Health Check which was carried out in collaboration with Waterford City and County Council. As a result, the area now has a number of clear actions for future development which the group are either directly involved in or working with other groups to progress, for example, the development of trails and walks in line with the future development of Waterford Greenways/Blueways, working with others in developing improved access to car parking and public toilets, supporting the development of the harbour with the local Boat Owners Association, participation in Tidy Towns and striving to improve the natural beauty of the area, keeping in mind the need for bio-diversity initiatives.

Every year the group hosts a Christmas Party for up to 40 to 50 older or more vulnerable residents in the community, but given the year that’s in it, they couldn't host the event. They still wanted to reach out and give each of the households that would normally attend, a small gift pack that would let them know that the community is thinking of them in these difficult times. The pack included Christmas cards and decorations made by the children in the local school, Christmas cake, pudding, biscuits, wine, crackers etc. and also solid fuel for the fire, which were dropped to the doorstep with the hampers.

One of the key goals of The Cheekpoint and Faithlegg Development Group is to create opportunities for people to connect with their neighbours and community, and they saw the challenges Covid19 was creating for families who lost a loved one, but had none of the back up support to see them through. So they came up with the idea of a Bereavement Pack. The group set about delivering a candle, a lantern and a plant to each family who lost a loved one, in memory and celebration of the person they had lost. This was to let people know that whilst they could not be in attendance, the community was thinking of them.

Below, Avril Bowe from The Cheekpoint and Faithlegg Development Group tells us a little more about what they do.

The Russell Sisters Christmas Drive Lismore

On the run up to Christmas, sisters Sarah and Alice Russell decided to do something for the vulnerable and older people in their local area of Lismore, Co. Waterford. Both sisters had been travelling abroad when the pandemic hit and had to return to Ireland. Having gained employment on their return and having their family around them, they realised that not everyone had that same luxury.

They decided that they would do something nice for the lovely people in Lismore who had been cocooning all year, those were elderly or vulnerable, who lived alone or who couldn’t be with family at Christmas. Their first thought was to do a Christmas dinner, but due to the restrictions that were in place at the time, they realised that this wouldn’t be possible. Their idea - Christmas gift bags!

Sarah and Alice posted on Facebook on a Lismore Community Page and the Lismore Covid Updates page asking people to nominate others in the community who they knew would like a gift bag. They also asked if people could donate baked goods or gifts of any kind. The response was phenomenal! In the days and weeks after the idea was posted on Facebook, the response was huge from people at home and abroad including people who were originally from Lismore but who did not live there anymore and from businesses around the town.

They had over 70 people volunteer to either bake, make chutneys and jams, knit, buy the gift bags, buy Christmas cards, donate chocolate, biscuits, jams, candles etc. A lot of people made contact saying they would help with delivering the gift bags or pack them. A large amount of nominations were received with over 140 names of people in the community who were identified to receive gift bags, including some elderly couples in the area as well. Some people who live abroad sent money to support the initiative and a very generous donation was received from the council. These funds were spent on jams and chocolates for the gift bags in our local shops in addition to buying some vouchers from one of the local cafes.

Local businesses in Lismore donated some of their goods, such as Mari Mina pharmacy, who kindly donated soaps and hand sanitizers, Wild Oats, who donated hand made soaps, Bakes by Laura, who donated delicious cupcakes, Lizzie Briens, who donated some vouchers and jams, Inka Design, who kindly donated beautiful personalised kindness poems for each of the bags, Anne Devine, a local author, who donated copies of her beautiful book and the Thrift shop Lismore who donated some of their lovely glasses and tea cups, “Something Nice”, who donated a lovely chocolate hamper and Lucy Hanrahan from the new anticipated bakery in Lismore “Vinilo”.

On the 22nd and 23rd of December, the sisters and volunteers got to work in their temporary home at the Spire Café, Lismore to bag up all the baked goods on both days and others helped deliver the bags. The bags were divided up into different areas and each person took a different area to deliver to on the 23rd of December. One of these volunteers was one of the local Gardai, who very kindly helped to deliver some of the gift bags to estates in Lismore.

There was an amazing reactions from all those who received a gift bag, some laughed, some cried, some were in shock, but everyone was delighted and thankful for being thought of. There were a few comments received from people that the gift bags had made their day so much better as they were having a rough time with Covid and family not being able to come home for Christmas. The Russells received numerous thank you cards in the post, which made their days brighter also!

Below, Alice Russell tells us a little more about what they did.

Waterford Older People's Council

Waterford OPC was set up in 2019 to support the implementation of the City and County’s Age Friendly Strategy. Since then, the OPC has set up an executive committee to represent the views of older people in Waterford. They have worked on various initiatives like Positive Ageing Week, Social Isolation and Digital Connectedness.

During Covid 19 the OPC, working with University of the Third Age, Waterford, has set up a Zoom concert on Thursday afternoons. This is a programme of music, stories and singalongs.

As part of Healthy Waterford’s Keep Well Campaign, the OPC is launching a photography competition to celebrate the contribution of older people within our County. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

Aoibhin Fallon spoke to Richard Torney and Ray McGrath about what the council does and some of the upcoming plans they have.

Surprise Surprise Dungarvan

Surprise Surprise Dungarvan was founded by Alma Shanahan Power on September 29th 2018. A Facebook group was created and a few friends invited in the hopes of maybe providing 45/ 50 gift hampers. Within one night, there were 176 people on the group with friends adding friends. Each person was asked for €1 a week for 8 weeks or €2 fortnightly to see if they could raise some money. They did this with a generous offer from Jane Casey Florist that people could drop money in an envelope and money started arriving very quickly.

Christmas was planned for and gift hampers were made up for those living alone. The group were very aware the week after Christmas with most places closed that some easy prepared food would be good. Each hamper contained, a Christmas mug, homemade Christmas cakes, mince pies, creamed rice, soup, Flavahan's porridge sachets (donated), a tin of sweets and The Ireland's own, who donated half of what was needed. The hampers were then wrapped in cellophane sponsored by Jane Casey Florist with beautiful bows.

January came and it was decision time that the group would carry on. Everybody wanted to keep Surprise Surprise going so they did. They moved to emergency bags of dignity next, having seen first hand people's lack of supplies in hospital. These bags can be found in local doctors surgeries, Fire Stations, Garda barracks and Caredoc. Surprise Surprise also make fidget mats for people with dementia and Alzheimer's and scenery boards for ASD Units and Children.

Last March Covid unfortunately hit Surprise Surprise like a ton of bricks as they had just bought a storage shed and it was now empty. The decision was then made to make care packages. The committee was contacted with a donation of €1000 worth of food and they made up filled bags with goods for families who were in isolation waiting on tests. The group made an incredible 2,085 food bags & 68 food boxes and delivered them weekly from Bunmahon to Tallow.

Local clubs and Waterford Community Group fundraised to help keep supplying emergency bags and meanwhile cocooners were knitting beautiful ear savers for front line staff, 3250 were made in total. Others got to making 100% cotton masks which were delivered to those most vulnerable in the community, medical centres and Covid volunteers - over 2,000 in total.

One of the highlights for the group was organising fish & chips meals, an ice cream van and De Banned played live for residents of CareChoice in Dungarvan and St. Carthages in Lismore.

In this video Alma, along with volunteer Michael Drummy, tell us about the joy it brings them to give back and about some of the events they undertook to put a smile on people's faces during the pandemic.

Waterford Integration Services

Waterford Integration Services is a humanitarian NGO providing essential services to Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and other vulnerable migrants here in Waterford City and County and the Southeast region. Established in 2018 with the support of Waterford City and County Council, they have built programme and service capacity to support migrants living in 5 Direct Provision accommodation (IPAS Centres) and the wider Refugee population living in the community. They also link to other Centres and agencies to share expertise, resources, information and learning.

Developing a Plan of Action for marginalised and vulnerable Migrants in Waterford with substantial assistance of Migrants themselves was paramount in supporting those who could not advocate for themselves during times of crisis. The current Coronavirus pandemic requires a plan of action to ensure that Migrants in Waterford (Refugees, Persons seeking international protections, Undocumented Migrants and cultural communities who are vulnerable and marginalised e.g., Roma & victims of human trafficking) have equal access to health and other essential services that they need. Face-to-face contact is replaced with online & telephone contacts unless in emergency situations.

Defeating Covid-19 required trust in Government leadership, information and supports, this meant Waterford Integration Services had to keep lines of communication open with service users to ensure that any information disseminated was understandable, accurate, up to date and available to all regardless of status or English language levels. As an organisation that has been working with migrant groups over considerable time, they had a key role to play in providing a mechanism to build trust and reduce risk for service users and staff during this pandemic.

They did this by -

• Providing reliable information on Covid-19 preventative measures to all Migrants
• Preparation of emergency supplies (hygiene packs & masks) for Migrants most at risk
• Engaging with Local Authority Community Response helpline to:
  Link migrant communities with essential services and especially translation supports.
  Provide cultural awareness feedback to agencies to improve response programme implementation.
• Supported the translation and dissemination of Minister of Health advisors and public health information on Covid-19 and its prevention into preferred languages of Migrants in Waterford and the Southeast.
• Disseminated this information through efficient channels including Outreach services, Migrant volunteers, and respective communities as well as online and social media pages.
• Supported Waterford Community Response initiative through expertise and access.
• Advocated for inclusion and non-discriminatory access of Migrants to public health services through appropriate referral systems (Intercultural and Roma Healthcare Hub).
• Included Migrants in local contingency, prevention and response plans and interventions.
• Partnered with Migrant community networks to monitor risks e.g., Waterford Migrant Integration Forum, Ireland Migrant Group, Public Participation Network, Indian, Brazilian, Afghan, Middle East, and undocumented worker communities.
• Tailored all activities to the context, adjusting for community perceptions, beliefs, and practices (Ramadan etc.).
• Diversified communication tools and simplified messages through single source social media, group texting and phone messaging.
• Used continued feedback to adapt messages to the evolving situation in a timely manner to aid understanding and avoid misinformation and confusion.
• Addressed any rise in harmful stereotyping and stigma. Stigma and misinformation increase the likelihood of preventing potential infected persons from seeking care immediately and motivate them to hide the sick people and/or evade treatment themselves to avoid discrimination).
• Considered impacts that unemployment brings e.g., mental health issues, financial worries, domestic violence, insecurities of losing employment, homelessness, family breakdown etc.
• Considered options for alternatives to unemployment post Covid-19 e.g., training/retraining for new or additional skills to increase potential for new employment and enterprise opportunities.

Waterford Integration Services also expanded its services to accommodate migrant groups that would normally find difficulty seeking supports in the community such as the undocumented and economic migrants who became unemployed, overstayed their work visa (as no services were accessible to renew on time) and migrant workers who were concerned about the lack of PPE and appropriate safe practices during this pandemic.

Waterford Integration Services would like to acknowledge the supports of Waterford City & County Council and the Department of Rural and Community Development in enabling this programme of work.

In this video, Anne and Somi chat about the work they undertook to make sure vulnerable people in our community were looked after during the pandemic.