Road to Kinsale is a Community Sponsorship project, initiated by a Kinsale-based group linked in their desire to offer a helping hand to those displaced in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises of our time. In witnessing the atrocities of the Syrian Civil War, and the resulting 11 million displaced Syrians, an ever-growing group of Kinsale people felt they couldn’t be bystanders and wanted to do something real to help.
“Imagine a day where your family, home, community, environment, career, health, safety and security are blown apart by a cruel and relentless civil war, forcing you to drop everything and run for your very life, leaving behind all you have known? This is exactly what has happened to ordinary people like us, in Syria. And it could just as easily have been us,” says a volunteer at Road to Kinsale.
In the coming months, a family that has been Garda vetted and approved by the Irish Government will come to Ireland and will be integrated into the community in Kinsale, rather than enter a traditional emergency reception and orientation centre.
This is a Government-led programme, executed by a local, 100 per cent voluntary team with knowledge in housing, medicine, NGOs, PR, English language tuition, education and training, employment, child safeguarding, local authority knowledge, sporting, and culture. This programme was developed by the Irish Government in cooperation with the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GSRI), the Irish Red Cross, NASC, Irish Refugee Council and the UNHCR.
The local community is now fundraising to provide an arrival and settlement plan for the family on arrival. The ambition is that within 24 months, the family will become part of Kinsale’s vibrant community and be in employment. One hundred per cent of funds raised will be directly applied to financially supporting the family assigned to Kinsale while they settle and become integrated with its wonderful community.
