Championing diversity

Cultural Champions celebrate recent graduation

More than a dozen immigrants, many of whom have made Cavan their home, will begin to make use of their unique and diverse backgrounds to better advocate on behalf of new communities arriving to the county.

Certificates were presented to these newly qualified ‘Cultural Champions’ at a ceremony held at the Hotel Kilmore earlier this month, where Cathal Grant, senior manager at Tusla’s Prevention, Partnership and Family Support in Cavan-Monaghan, praised their effort.

According to the 2016 Census there were 535,475 non-Irish nationals of over 200 different nationalities living in Ireland, with almost 12% of the more than 76,000 people living in Cavan being of foreign descent.

The Cultural Champions programme, which is already well-established in neighbouring Co Monaghan, came about when organisations such as Túsla identified a need for better family support intervention for immigrants.

“The Cultural Champions programme is a great example of collaboration and innovation between the statutory, community and voluntary sector in improving outcomes for children and families in Cavan,” praised Mr Grant.

The programme in Cavan has been supported by Cavan County Local Development (CCLD), with Advocacy, Parenting and Child Protection training provided by Cavan-Monaghan ETB. It also has the backing of Cavan Cross Cultural Community (4C), an association that exists to promote interest in multicultural development, with each cultural champion urged to establish support groups within their respective ethnic communities.

Terry Hyland, CEO of CCLD, which delivers rural, social and economic programmes in Cavan, believes the benefit of establishing a key network of supports for often marginalised communities will be self-perpetuating into the future. “Take for instance the past almost two years, when COVID has been a challenge for us all, but especially for those who are vulnerable or those who have just arrived in the country will little or no support.”

He says providing supports is one thing, but being able to direct those who, in some cases are “scared, frightened and are living in fear” to those supports, is entirely different.

“The programme looks to rely on and develop the expertise and capacity of people who have these skills, to work within their own communities, and thereby creating a bridge to better help them access statutory services, to integrate more, and to enable the services themselves to better understand what is going on in that person’s life as well,” explains Mr Hyland.

For the likes of Siobhán McKenna, manager at Tearmann Domestic Violence Service, improved opportunities of being able to encourage engagement are real.

Cultural champions have assisted people in making a formal complaint in a number of cases before the courts.

Ms McKenna says in the last 12 months the Tearmann service has worked with 30 different nationalities. “This is where [cultural champions] will really become more important for us going forward, around language, around cultural difference, to make that link, so they can advocate to us about the need the individual person has, and we can work back through them when it comes to positively building in supports around that person, in terms housing, schools, child and healthcare.”

Vanda Brady from Mullahoran has been an advocate for the Filipino community in Ireland. In 2019, she was presented with a Cathaoirleach’s Award for Social Inclusion for her exceptional effort and service in a voluntary or unpaid capacity towards helping others. A founding member of 4C, Vanda jumped at the opportunity to become a cultural champion, telling the Celt: “It’s about building trust with families and improving outcomes for them. It’s about empowering us as cultural champions, to also give us the necessary skills to share with others within our communities.”

Maryam Ololobou is originally from Nigeria. She is also involved with 4C. She recognises, when it comes to some African communities, that there are often cultures within cultures. It can pose a headache for services unaware of such diversities. “It is why it is so important to bridge that gap. A lot of immigrants don’t speak English, so it makes things immediately difficult.”

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tutu Kalumbi is now the chair of the cultural champions in Cavan. He resettled Cavan as part of the group of Congolese refugees that arrived in Ireland in 2014. When he first arrived, Tutu says he was “afraid” to even say hello to people passing on the street. He adds that the supports offered to the Congolese community at the time were important in helping his integration.

“I lived in Tanzania for 20 years as a refugee before coming to Ireland. It was like starting a new life when we came to Ireland. I had people help me, and I would now like to help others.”

CEO of CMETB, John Kearney, is proud of what the recent graduates have achieved. The programme was delivered online due to Covid, but he has high-hopes of seeing the cultural champions initiative extended further into the future.

“That’s our responsibility as an education and training provider, to create opportunities for everyone in our community. Our job is to deliver programmes for communities, and obviously there are barriers there, but we are working together with our partners, the likes of CCLD and 4C’s to break those down. At its core, the whole Cultural Champions programme is about opportunity and equality.

“We have a lot to contend with in two rural counties but that’s a challenge we’re ready to meet, to create pathways and support our new communities.”