Charity workshop for 2018 completed

Yesterday evening I dropped into the office of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) in Amiens Street in Dublin city centre to hand over the funds raised during our annual end-of-year workshop. 

As a group, we raised €1,125 euro with everyone present on Saturday contributing to this cause instead of paying training fees, and it was my privilege to deliver this on behalf of the various Bujinkan Dojo groups who came together on the day.

Pauline of ICHH was good enough to show me around the premises and explain exactly where and how our money will be put to good use. To say that these people are doing good work would be a profound understatement. 

ICHH outreach volunteers are on the streets of Dublin city and surrounding areas 7 nights a week. Volunteers leave the office on Amiens St at 11pm each night (at which point any homeless person who has secured a hostel bed is off the streets) and set out on walking routes on both the north and southside of the city. They bring supplies such as tea, coffee, soup, pot noodles, sandwiches, fruit, water, hats, scarves, gloves, clothes and sleeping bags. 

Most importantly they offer empathy and compassion as a simple chat can mean so much to people sleeping rough around the city. They engage with them as equal human beings, deserving of compassion and respect and they help people through the hardest periods of their lives. 

Our donation will be used to help this work, and Pauline made a point of saying that if anyone from our group would like to go out on an outreach walk with ICHH at any point, they’d be welcome to do so. 

Thanks to Tom Clements, Ali Martinez, Richard Weld Moore, Stiofan Conlon who came and taught on the day, and everyone who turned up and crucially supported this event with their presence and generosity. 

If you'd like to find out more about ICHH you can find them on Facebook at Inner City Helping Homeless.