Tag Archives: poverty

SUDDENLY money has become very scarce for many people and hard choices are having to be made in a lot of households. Ciara (not her real name) is a full-time carer living in Ennis, while her partner has now been put out of work, leaving them very reliant on the Mid West Simon Food Bank. She has been through hard times quite often in the course of her life, often having accessed services from Simon in the past, and the charity have helped her with various issues. “I live with my partner who did work, and the Foodbank is very good since the work stopped. Now the work is cut back and he didn’t qualify for the €350 because he wasn’t working in March or February. He’s back on the JobSeekers now so it’s very handy with the Foodbank, it used to be once every two weeks but now it’s once a month. Things I don’t use I’d pass onto …

CLARE MABS is currently assisting more than 100 clients in late-state mortgage arrears, with a further 110 mortgage arrears clients also being helped by the money advice service in the county. Details of the supports MABS is offering throughout Clare was revealed at a presentation to Clare County Council’s Social Development Strategic Policy Committee. In relation to late-stage mortgage arrears, the results have included five cases where restructuring or long-term solutions have been approved; 11 cases in trial test periods, where, if successful, a long-term arrangement will be considered by the lender; 12 cases awaiting decisions and 10 clients referred for personal insolvency arrangements. The meeting heard that MABS runs a court mentor scheme, providing advice and support with an increase in the numbers of clients availing of the service in recent years. The Abhaile court mentor scheme sees MABS representatives attend local circuit court mortgage possession case hearings. An information stand is positioned in the court lobby, giving independent …

ENNIS man Colin Brennan has joined Ireland’s largest international aid agency to help people living in extreme poverty in Uganda. The 30-year-old, from Woodhaven in Ennis, flew to the landlocked east African country earlier this month to begin a year’s work with Concern Worldwide. He will be assisting Concern’s aid workers in the country’s poorest regions where they provide crucial health, water, sanitation, nutrition and education services to impoverished Ugandan people and to the thousands of refugees arriving from neighbouring war-torn South Sudan. Colin said: “I’m excited to work with Concern, which is one of the great Irish NGOs with a great reputation worldwide. It is just a privilege to be working with them. “I always saw this as a fascinating way to work and as a way to give back. You are working in strange and sometimes extreme environments with an organisation that really does do good work in the developing world,” he said. The new aid worker said it is …