Tag Archives: migrant crisis

A KINVARA-BASED artist has launched a charitable initiative to support the work of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency fund, after her own experience of working with migrants. Anne Korff, who has volunteered herself with refugees on the Greek island of Chios, is making a series of images available for sale, with proceeds going to the international medical charity. Roses of Hope – Meditations is the name of six reproductions of Anne’s work, which are 25cm x 25cm in size, ring bound and with a hanging attachment, ready to display on a wall. Proceeds from the sale of the book, which cost just €20 each, will go to the MSF emergency fund. The series was created as a series of paintings during the coronavirus pandemic. “Throughout the lockdown periods of solitude and isolation, Anne wanted to share her artwork as a way of providing support, inspiration and nourishment for the soul. Each painting is a meditation using energy, colour and …

SHOCKING television images of the migrant crisis in Calais has spurred one Clare woman into dramatic action. A conversation at the end of last week between Inagh’s Róisín Ní Gháirbhith and a friend of hers in Cork about the situation at the French port has now turned into a national humanitarian aid convoy involving two trucks, 10 vans, two camper vans, six cars and 40 volunteers. Desperate migrants from North Africa and the Middle East have been travelling to Calais in an effort to enter the UK. Some have attempted to walk the 31-mile Channel Tunnel, while others try to stow away on trucks using the Eurotunnel or on ships travelling from the port. Others try to climb aboard the Eurostar train. Now Calais is home to large, poorly-equipped camps and an estimated 3,000 migrants, mainly men and boys, many of whom paid large sums to people smugglers to get there. “I was watching all this on television and reading …