Today is We Act's first anniversary! Last year we brought together staff and volunteers from every sector to celebrate the launch of the campaign on October 27th 2021. For one year, We Act has been telling the stories of staff and volunteers and celebrating all the people who organise, activate, inspire and ignite change around them.​

Welcome to the October Issue of the We Act Good News Gazette. Let's Celebrate!

It's been one year of We Act! Today we celebrate all of the stories we've told and look forward to highlighting all of the good news that comes in 2023.

If you'd like to celebrate with us you can

• Download our anniversary toolkit

• Follow @weactireland on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

• Tell us what you love most about the sector and use the hashtags #WeAct and #OneYearOfWeAct

We hope you enjoy October's Good News Gazette and join in our celebration on social media! If you'd like to share our happy digest, invite your friends to subscribe to our newsletter here.

Two members of the community smile at the site of the Geashill village homes 

Community members of Geashill Village in Co. Offaly came together over the past months with the sole purpose of providing three homes for three Ukrainian families. The community came together setting meetings, managing fundraisers, developing building plans and new homes, organising proper inspections, and planning a celebration for when everyone arrived. Now, all the families are safely in their new homes. This is their story…

It all began when Breege Loftus called a community meeting. “I just felt that as a single person I could do very little. So, I found a spot and invited the whole community to a meeting.

We came up with the idea to find homes for three refugee families, with the hope that by inviting more than one family into the community they could lean on us for support and lean on each other. We wanted to create a welcome space, where families fleeing the war in Ukraine could find support and act independently.”

Reverend Fran Grasham came aboard to help facilitate the meeting. “At our initial meeting, we knew there weren't really any sutiable houses in the village and we started to explore mobile homes.”

Members of the Geashill community sit outside one of the mobile homes ready for the Ukrainian refugee families

Once it was agreed upon, a committee was set up and the community got to work. Fran said, “It has been a case of different people bringing their skills to the table” and Breege recalls the community support.

“We said anybody who wanted to help was welcome. They all did whatever they wanted to do and what they could. If you said you were good at something we gave them that job. So people were running social media, organising fundraisers, planning events, preparing the homes. We threw everything at this”.

Everything from bake sales and auctions to céilís, collections outside the local churches, and concerts. Eventually, over €50,000 were raised within the community and the homes were purchased.

Geashill community comes together to celebrate the new members of their community

“People gave their own money and time to get things done. They shouldn’t have to, but they did it anyways. We would love to see in the future more support, but we got the money, bought the homes and we started on the next phase – turning the mobiles into homes and finding families to live in them. Without outside support, we tidied up the last bits of paperwork and by mid-August, we had families moving to Geashill.

Now the families are in their space, they pay all their own gas, electricity and garbage. They are sustaining their own lives because we were able to provide them the starting blocks and we’re so happy we could do that. They’re a part of us now”, says Breege.

After the families were a bit more settled and the kids were in school, the committee planned a celebration. The community came together to enjoy a meal of Irish and Ukrainian food and nourish the new friendships made.

A thank you note from one of the refugee families to the community

“Since the celebration, we know there’s still work to do. It’s not just that we found space for these families and everything is hunky dory. Daily, they are still dealing with the fact they have family back in Ukraine and all the other ramifications of war. We didn’t want our support to stop at the practical side, but to provide that real community and emotional support. Now, people will just go grab a coffee with the mums or offer child care after school. It’s blown me away how willing people are to help”, says Fran.

Ultimately, the community sees this as a huge win. Breege says “as a community, we got an awful lot back. We created new and blossoming friendships. It was the first time the whole of the village worked on one thing together. Across all kinds of communities and groups, everyone came together. We all crossed lines that were never crossed before in pursuit of welcoming the refugee families. It was amazing.”

The committee continues working to support the families in the community. You can find out more about the story of a community in action on their Facebook page.

We Act is a national, collaborative campaign to celebrate the value and impact of the charities and community groups in Ireland. It is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development. 

Got a story? Email madeline@wheel.ie

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