Invisible Tidy Town cleaners
ASYLUM SEEKERS’ CIVIC PRIDE IN SLIGO
One group which deserves special mention among the many Tidy Towns teams in Sligo - particularly because they’re not even citizens of this country yet - are the asylum seekers of Globe House.
Unbeknownst to most of us, they have been getting up early every Sunday morning each summer since 2007 to clean our streets and roads.
Former asylum seeker Shupai Matewa from Malawi has been co-ordinating them for the past ten years and loves the volunteer work.
“I encourage others to help out. When we started it was only me. This year we had 25 people cleaning between our launch on Good Friday and the end of September,” Shupai told The Sligo Champion.
“For me it was a way to inter- act with people and get involved with the community. People come to realise how beneficial it is. Once they realise how beneficial it is, they tell all their friends.
“As long as I’m living in Sligo I’m not going to stop,” she added.
Sahr James (26) worked with Amnesty International in Freetown, Sierra Leone before he came to Sligo as an asylum seeker last year.
“I want to serve as a change agent in the community,” he said. “I have gotten a whole lot out of it. Meeting with new people, getting to know the community, fostering a community spirit in my life and learning new skills,” he said.
“It has equipped me to be able to organise people,” said Sahr, who also volunteers with the FAI, Sligo Rovers and Sligo Volunteer Centre.