SPIRASI News
SPIRASI celebrates its 10th Birthday!
SPIRASI was constituted as an organisation on 7th December 1999. On Human Rights Day (10th December), we celebrated our 10th birthday by launching Working with an Interpreter is Easy, our expert, comprehensive and accessible handbook and DVD on the use of interpreters by health professionals.
Guests of honour, Emer Costello (Lord Mayor of Dublin) and Noeline Blackwell (Director General of Free Legal Advice Centres) joined John Crowe (chair of SPIRASI board of directors) and Mick McMahon (SPIRASI Director) to launch the interpreting guide at the SPIRASI building and to talk about the importance of the work of SPIRASI over the past 10 years. See the press release for more details.
If you would like a copy of our Working with an Interpreter is Easy publication, please contact SPIRASI.
UN Day in Support of Victims of Torture at SPIRASI
Each year on June 26th, SPIRASI joins with a global network of individuals and organisations to mark the UN Day in Support of Victims of Torture by raising awareness of the evil of torture and at the same time supporting the victims and survivors of torture. This year SPIRASI hosted two events to mark UN day.
SPIRASI at the 2009 Women’s Mini Marathon
For the Women’s Mini Marathon on Monday 1st June, Team SPIRASI was out in force in the bright bank holiday sunshine. We had 5 runners and walkers taking part in the race and 14 volunteers painting people’s faces to raise money to support SPIRASI’s vital work. We would like to thank all those volunteers who joined us for the face-painting and supported SPIRASI. They did the organisation proud and the day was a great success.
Spiritan Intercultural Event – ‘A World of Light’
The Spiritans, formally known as the Holy Ghost Fathers, are this year celebrating 150 years of their presence in Ireland. A function to mark the occasion was organised by SPIRASI and Kimmage Development Studies Centre. The function took place on the evening of 30th May in a large marquee tent at Kimmage Manor. 14 NGOs which were either started by the Spiritans or closely associated with them — including SPIRASI, World Mercy Fund, Concern and Kimmage Development Studies Centre — were asked to put up a display illustrating their work.
The colourful function was opened by a group of Cameroonian dancers and drummers. Personal testimonies were given by people whose lives had been influenced by Spiritans followed by an excerpt from Fall and Recover a dance piece performed by survivors of torture who had attended SPIRASI as clients. The function was closed by Fr Brian Starken, the Provincial leader with a ceremonial candle-lighting and the release of a flock of white doves to the sound of the Cameroonian drummers.
Dance performance featuring survivors of Torture
Fall & Recover, an Irish Modern Dance Theatre production featuring SPIRASI clients who are survivors of torture has completed a run of three performances as part of the Dublin Dance Festival. The project was recently resurrected by choreographer John Scott who organised the first production of Fall & Recover with survivors of torture back in 2003.
Music and dance are integral to all cultures and is particularly used as a means of self expression in African cultures. As well as overcoming language barriers, the participation in the non-verbal actions of dance have proven to be therepeutic for survivors of torture.
The show was reviewed in the Irish Times which also carried an interview with two of the performers. Their web-site also hosts a video of a rehearsal for the dance piece.
Pobal Speisialta wins prestigious European Television Award
The TV programme, Pobal Speisialta has won the Prix Circom award for best magazine programme. The show, broadcast on 16th March 2008, was produced by RTE Nuacht in partnership with SPIRASI and was co-presented by the charismatic Eloho Egwuterai who now works with SPIRASI. The RTÉ Nuacht team provided training and technical support to give asylum seekers and refugees the opportunity to tell their stories and to share their experiences of life in Ireland. More information on the programme is in the press statement released last year and the programme itself can be viewed on the RTÉ web-site.
CIRCOM Regional is an association of over 200 regional and national television stations throughout Europe and each year, the Prix Circom awards are given to the best programmes produced by local European channels. In this case, The judges were intrigued with both the content and the manner in which the programme was produced, giving so much editorial control over to the contributors. Further coverage on the winning of this award is available on the RTÉ News web-site.
Run for SPIRASI or sponsor a SPIRASI runner
Please join the SPIRASI team for this year’s Flora Women’s Mini Marathon which will take place in Dublin on Bank Holiday Monday, 1st June 2009.
Application forms to register for this year’s Women’s Mini Marathon are available online at www.womensminimarathon.ie by April 21st.
Meet us afterwards in Kehoe’s Pub, South Anne Street just of Grafton St. for a congratulatory pint after the event.
For further information, sponsorship cards and T-Shirts, contact Kim or Rachael in the SPIRASI office on (01) 8389664 or e-mail kim@spirasi.ie or rachael@spirasi.ie. Your support will be much appreciated.
NB: Entries for the 2009 Flora Women’s Mini Marathon are now closed.
International Women’s Day - 2009
An event to mark International Women’s Day was celebrated on Monday 9th March and was hosted at the Mansion House, Dublin, by Her Excellency Priscilla Jana, the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa. Many countries were represented by their Ambassadors. Guests included representatives of Non Government Organizations such as SPIRASI which was represented by the Director Michael Begley and Assistant Director Tom Hogan.
Ambassador Jana welcomed the guests to celebrate International Women’s Day and to mark the 30th anniversary of the convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Ambassador noted that despite have fought courageously against tyranny and oppression, women have had little part to play in all the stages of peace negotiations, conflict resolution and post conflict management and reconstruction. The celebration of International Women’s Day, she said, is a call for solidarity, solidarity of men and women towards the ultimate dream of a just, fair and equal world.
Senator Ivana Bacik highlighted the fact that although Ireland had Countess Markievicz as the first women minister in the government of Ireland, women still have little representation in public office. Senator called for greater representation of women in positions of leadership in the Government of Ireland.
The occasion was marked by a wonderful performance by renowned jazz vocalist Denise Jannah who is pictured above.
SPIRASI visit to Garda Training College in Templemore
On Thursday 5th March, staff and students from SPIRASI visited Templemore Garda College and met both the trainee gardaí as well as the Garda Chief Superintendent and other teaching staff. They discussed garda training in intercultural issues, Cultural diversity, the slow intake of new recruits from the new communities and especially from sub-Saharan Africa.
Andreas, who led the SPIRASI group expressed his gratitude on behalf of our organisation for hosting us at this visit and briefed the hosts on the work we do. He also mentioned that having members from the migrant community in An Garda Siochana would go a long way to assure new communities of their acceptance and integration in the society. The group also discussed ways of addressing misuse of power by guards and were briefed of the work of the office of the Garda Ombudsman and their process for handling complaints.
SPIRASI in the news!
On Saturday 3rd January, the Irish Times published two articles by their migration correspondent, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic on the work of SPIRASI and its Centre for Care of Survivors of Torture.
The first article was an interview with Margaret O’Reilly Carroll, SPIRASI’S psychotherapy co-ordinator about her experience working with a severely traumatised survivor of torture as well as the wider issue of life for survivors of torture who are still suffering from the trauma they experienced.
The second article consisted of an interview of Fr Michael Begley, Director of SPIRASI and described how the cessation in funding from the European Union resulted in a major reduction in SPIRASI’s ability to provide rehabilitative care to survivors of torture living in Ireland and SPIRASI’s difficulties in securing statutary funding for 2009.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Irish Society: Public Perception Survey
A survey on attitudes of Irish people towards refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland was carried out by Rachel Revelle and Yifan Wang, two interns from Duke University (based in North Carolina, US) who worked with SPIRASI in July and August 2008. Over 200 respondants were asked to fill out a questionnaire to ascertain their knowledge and views on immigrant issues.
While the sample base of the survey wasn’t large and not all demographic sections of Irish society were represented, some interesting conclusions could be drawn. One of the main conclusions was that there is still a lot of ignorance among Irish people about asylum, refugee and other immigration issues. Interesting findings were that 76% of respondants expressed sympathy for asylum seekers and 90% said they would welcome immigrants into their community. Also, 61% thought that asylum seekers should be allowed to work while waiting for a decision on their asylum application.
However this sentiment was countered by the fact that only 29% said they would donate to NGOs working with refugees. Those who said they wouldn’t contribute did so for reasons including concerns about the Irish economy and negative perceptions that asylum seekers and refugees “abuse the social welfare system,” etc.
It should be noted that the opinions expressed in the report and the conclusions drawn from the survey are those of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views of SPIRASI.
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