Advocacy and Action
By: Emmy Atkinson
Tags: Action, Volunteering, Empowerment, Advocacy, Climate Change

Written by Emily Atkinson.

Marie-Anne Michel, has been in Galway for 18 years working for various charities and more recently for Cope Galway. Marie-Ann has most recently been appointed Trocaire’s volunteer and outreach officer for the West.

Trocaire is 45 years old and has centres in, Dublin, Cork, Derry and Belfast but this is the first time they have an employee in Galway. Trocaire also has a new woman CEO, Caoimhe De Barra so it’s an exciting time for Trocaire.

There are many things people can do to make a difference says Marie-Ann, “Getting informed and taking action on our campaigns. So at the moment, we have a business and human rights campaign, and we are asking people to sign petitions online. Sharing things on social media as well, sharing global issues with their friends, for student’s it’s very easy, they can do everything online if they want to. Just letting as many people know what’s going. Advocacy is very important. We did a lot with our Climate Change campaign, we worked with pushing the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill and we were successful, on the 12th of July this was signed in. But this was a result of years of advocacy, people pushing their local TD’s to push the Bill. We are now trying to push for the Occupied Territories Bill, and we are pushing our local TDs again. So students could send emails, make phone calls, send letters, getting in contact with politician’s telling them that they want them to vote yes for the Bill.”

Volunteers can help in a number of ways, “We are looking for volunteers to do what it is they are interesting in themselves. They could be helping with the school outreach programmes, they could help with our online campaigns, being active and organising events, maybe NUIG volunteers could so a film screening or discussion and try and push the agenda of a certain campaign. We also have events as well that we need help with. There’s loads that can be done! We are trying to keep the momentum in Galway, so if anyone has any ideas that they would like to do they are welcome to contact me.” Trocaire is currently recruiting volunteers, and there will be an induction in November, “We are hoping that volunteers would like to commit long-term and because we have the different centres around Ireland, they can link up with different centres if they move away from Galway. It can be as much time as they want it to be.”

Marie-Anne has a strong sense of justice which pushed her to start working for charities. On her new role, she says “Volunteer and outreach is everything I love doing. Trocaire is such a great organisation as well, and I feel very strongly about development and about what’s going on in the world. I love the idea of being a voice for an organisation, and doing my bit of work within Ireland that’s going to have a huge impact on people’s lives overseas.”

The role of volunteer and outreach officer involves recruiting volunteers, “We’re focusing on Galway for now, and then all the West of Ireland. We want to recruit volunteers to raise awareness on global issues and the impact that your actions may have, even in Ireland on the rest of the world. So it’s all about raising awareness in the community and letting everyone know what’s going on in the world, and to encourage people to become more active citizens, to know what’s going on and to know that they have a voice. A lot of the work would involve schools, to let children know about the world and how lucky they are they are living in Ireland, and that things are not the same everywhere in the world.”

The highlights of Marie-Anne’s work has been meeting with young people, “I was recently at the Ploughing Championships and I loved the interaction with the young children and was amazed at how some of them are so aware. They really know what’s going on in the world and they really understand it.”

Trocaire is known for their humanitarian work but hey also do a lot of work on women’s empowerment, “In Somalia there’s a big problem with malnutrition in young children, so there’s a lot of work being done to help these children like building hospitals to give them proper care and start making them feel better. In Sierra Leone, Trocaire has helped women in political campaigns, to try and win elections so they can become the chief of their communities. There’s a lot of work being done to empower women and give them a voice.”

For information on becoming a Trocaire volunteer, and to find out about volunteer opportunities with Trócaire in the west of Ireland, please call Marie-Anne on 091 781 231 or email marieanne.michel@trocaire.org or visit www.trocaire.org/volunteer or email volunteering@trocaire.org.