Resilience in crises

There has been a 30% increase in people approaching the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) for help since mid-2008.  One quarter of them have never done so before - in fact they may have been donors to the Society but are now unemployed or in financial difficulty.  They need the very basics such as food, fuel, and schoolbooks, clothes and so on.

These figures were revealed by the National Director of SVP Kieran Murphy when speaking at a forum hosted by President Mary McAleese at Árus an Uachtaráin, under the title Resilience in Tough Times - Civic Society's Response.

"There has been an increase in the number of people who have never before approached the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and who, in their wildest dreams, would never have thought that they would needed our assistance," he said.

However neither Kieran Murphy nor SVP are daunted.  He stated that although crises are times of difficulty, pain and even despair, they are also times of opportunity.

“The things we took for granted, the way we approached problems and the energy we brought to our work are all challenged in crises.  This opens up the possibility of new ways of thinking and working,” he said.  “Civil Society organisations, through their different types of work, create spaces from which spring new perspective, a restatement of fundamental social justice values and hopefulness for the future.”

by Ann Marie Foley