23/03/2021
SVP Makes Christmas Special for Mourne Families in Need During Pandemic
Despite greatly reduced church door collections because of the pandemic,
St Colman’s conference assisted over 90 Mourne households in need over the Christmas period.
This made possible by the generosity of so many parishioners and other organisations who assisted in the task. For example, the pupils of St Louis Grammar School held a special collection which enabled us to purchase gift vouchers from local shops, thus supporting local business and families in need. Meanwhile the pupils of St Colman’s, St Columban’s and Grange Primary schools together with Gaelsciol na mBeann decorated specially designed Christmas cards to accompany the gift vouchers and other goods which we were able to give to individuals and families.
Newry Chamber of Commerce turned up trumps again this year donating a small mountain of toys for the children identified by ourselves and the local Health Visitor team. Our partners at Cornerstone Foodbank, Kilkeel Development Association, Home-Start, and Mourne Matters joined us to ensure that food parcels, toiletries, masks, sanitisers, clothes, and other goods reached those in need. Our conference also provided fuel stamps, electricity top-ups, recycled furniture and white goods to families beset by redundancy, unexpected bills, and welfare cuts.
Some quotations from those we helped:
1. “SVP has been a Godsend. With no local family support and the children all at home during lockdown I was really struggling to cover the cost of food and heating. You helped me out with oil stamps and a big food parcel as well as a Christmas gift pack containing a perfume set and shoes for my teenage daughters. I used the Asda voucher to buy our Christmas dinner. Thank you so much. We’d be stuck without St Vincent de Paul”.
2. “You got us out of a hole at Christmas. My husband is out of work and we had spent all our money moving to our new home. When we arrived, we discovered there was no oil in the tank. You kindly gave us fuel stamps and shoes and games for our daughter. Can’t thank you enough”.
3. “A big thank you for the oil stamps and toys, toiletries, books and games for the children. Really made Christmas for us at a difficult time when we were all stuck at home with the pandemic”.
