St.Vincent de Paul issue plea for support in South Tipperary to enable them to support struggling families

South Tipperary Vincent de Paul has issued an urgent appeal to the public for support to enable the organisation to provide assistance to families struggling to cope.

The VdP require huge support this year as a result of the impact the coronavirus has had on the community and on their own funds.

“Because of Covid more and more families are under enormous pressure this year.

“There are just more people to help at a time when funding has taken a big hit,” said Bill Nash, treasurer of the South Tipperary Area Council.

gate collections

He explained that the VdP has been unable to hold monthly church gate collections since February and the national annual church gate collection will not be able to proceed this Sunday.

“The annual national church gate collection was always such a major part of our fundraising and it cannot be held,” he said.

Bill Nash estimated that just in Clonmel alone the absence of a church gate collection since February and the loss of the annual national church gate collection means the VdP conferences in the town of Clonmel would be down approximately €70,000 in funding.

“The VdP conferences in all the other bigger towns and villages throughout south Tipperary would also have suffered significantly,” said Bill.

NATIONAL APPEAL

He has called on the public to support the VdP national appeal which is taking place all this week as it normally does every year in the build up to the annual church gate collection.

“We have no annual national church gate collection this year unfortunately so we are asking for support in a number of different ways,” said the south Tipperary treasurer.

The primary way donations can be made is by using a blue VdP envelope that has been distributed to all the churches and was inserted in the national newspapers and return that envelope by freepost.

Those envelopes can also be dropped into the VdP offices at Mulcahy House from Monday to Friday between 9.30am to 4.30pm and also to the VdP shop in Mary Street from Monday to Saturday between 9.30am and 4.30pm.

A separate appeal is being conducted inviting business interests and professionals to make a donation.

“Again this appeal to businesses will be affected this year because we are not going to ask business interests who were directly affected by Covid to make a donation.

“In previous years about 650 letters would have gone out to business interests in the Clonmel area and now this year we will be down to about 280 because of the difficulties endured by business interests during Covid,” he said.

Bill Nash said that people could also continue supporting VdP locally by using the VdP shop in Mary Street in Clonmel or by supporting either the book shop in Mulcahy House which is open Monday to Friday or the furniture sale at Mulcahy House which is running on the Fridays up to Christmas.

CONFIDENTIAL LINE

People who wish to make contact with the VdP in south Tipperary can ring 052 6123878 in confidence and talk to a member of the charity if they’re in need of assistance.

“We are here to help people as much as we can. At Christmas time the number of people needing help in Clonmel would increase by over 500.

“It is a once off increase because of the time of the year but we will do our best to help as many as we can,” added Bill.