Bringing a Bag of Life to help the homeless at Christmas

Aine OBoyle

THE latest homeless figures show that a population equivalent to a small Irish town – 10,514 people, including 1,733 families and their 3,826 children – is in emergency hostels, hotels or family hubs in Dublin.

This makes the work of the ‘Bag for Life’ campaign more important than ever.

Bag for Life was set up three years ago by Dún Laoghaire native Muslimah Eire in response to the growing homelessness crisis across the city.

While out doing their soup run outside the GPO every Friday night,  Muslimah’s group, the Muslim Sisters of Eire, noticed that there were a lot of rough sleepers.

The homeless can call a freephone number at night to get a bed in a hostel, but for those who don’t get a bed, they have to sleep out on the streets.

Chairperson of the Muslim Sisters of Eire, Lorraine O’Connor, said: “Three years ago we thought, ‘can we not do something that would help them survive on the street?’

This promted the Sisters to create a ‘Bag for Life’ that contains a hat, scarf, gloves, a protein and sugar pack, a sleeping bag, pop up tent and insulators.

“The first year we had them we were able to raise enough money to buy 150 bags,” O’Connor said. “We delivered them on Christmas Eve while the the whole of Ireland was in a frenzy and busy with their Christmas shopping.

“We at the Muslim organisations don’t celebrate Christmas so we thought we would go out on Christmas Eve because that’s when you see a lot of rough sleepers.”

Last Christmas the group managed to raise enough money to make 300 bags. They handed out 200 of them on Christmas Eve and the remainder throughout the rest of the year.

Now, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to raise money for the ‘Bag for Life’ campaign.

People can donate the cost of a bag which is €55 or materials such as hats, scarves and gloves to go into the bag.

Aside from the ‘Bag for Life’ the Muslim Sisters of Eire have also been involved in a number of school visits as part of the ‘This is Me’ campaign.

“We go into schools and explain about our organisation,” O’Connor added. “We speak about how sometimes Islam can be seen as an oppressive religion for women. So we go in and highlight the work we do.”