Trócaire box holds firm in delivering up to €8m annually 50 years on

It may be 50 years old this year but the humble Trócaire box has in all that time held firm in delivering about € 8 million annually to help those in poorer countries.

First launched in 1973 by the Irish bishops the box, in addition to attracting donations, acts as a trigger for deeper thought regarding the causes of poverty and inequality worldwide, said charity chief executive Caoimhe de Barra,

“It ignites that almost innate sense of human solidarity in Irish people … People have a will to help in a very immediate way, and a will to understand,” she said.

Phone donations

Two-thirds of the donations are returned through churches and schools and one-third directly to Trócaire through online, postal and phone donations. While outside world events such as the Covid-19 pandemic affected donations and how they were returned to Trócaire, these have again returned to normal, according to the organisation.

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This year’s Trócaire campaign — being launched today (Tuesday) focuses on Somalia and the box tells the story of Ambiyo, her husband Mahat, and their eight young children — in desperate need due to a fifth consecutive year of drought.

According to Trócaire country director Paul Healy, what has been unfolding in Somalia is “an absolute” catastrophe.

“This is the worst drought and the severity of it is unreal. They say there has not been a deeper and longer drought in the last 70 years.”

It has resulted in the loss of almost four million livestock and the internal migration of tens of thousands of people from rural areas. Mostly, they arrive at the edges of towns with nothing.

Among those making the journey were Ambiyo and her family. After walking for three days, they arrived at a camp for displaced people in Gedo in southern Somalia. Ambiyo was pregnant and then experienced serious complications when giving birth. She was taken to the nearby health centre run by Trόcaire where she and the baby received life-saving treatment.

Trócaire runs all of the health services in the Gedo district of Somalia, supporting more than 220,000 people a year. It is known locally as “the Mother of Gedo” and in recent months the number of young children presenting with malnutrition has trebled, with growing pressure on services.

“The outlook is very bleak,” said Mr Healy. “The scale of the crisis is unmatched by the funding available. It is an absolute catastrophe and it is going to continue until rains restore livelihoods that have been lost.”

As he noted, with water such a precious and limited resource, the role of climate change cannot be underplayed; this is a crisis not of Somalia’s making. “They are innocent bystanders,” he added.

Comparing crises is invidious, but he believes this Lenten campaign can help to train minds on the Somalian situation at a time when the impact of the Ukraine war is visible in almost every Irish town.

“It is almost forgotten, to be honest,” said Mr Healy of the “horrible situation” being witnessed by aid workers in Somalia.

“I can understand the proximity of the Ukrainian crisis but we are talking about 8.3 million people in need and 6.7 million people are already on the edge of starvation. You simply cannot forget that.”

Ms de Barra said having real families affected by the crisis featured on the Trócaire boxes focuses people’s minds on the reality of a disaster, and should also prompt thought about the reasons for poverty and inequality.

It was scenes of famine and flooding in Bangladesh 50 years ago which created the collection box campaign, making it a focus of seasonal giving.

Josiane Umumarashavu from Rwanda was featured on the Trócaire Box in 2004, having lost her father and some siblings in the 1994 Rwandan genocide when she was just three years old.

‘Very emotional’

Today aged 31 and a mother of two, she is working for Trócaire in Rwanda as a finance officer.

“I still have the 2004 Trócaire box in my home and I look at it now and again to remind myself of how far I have come,” she said.

“I get very emotional when I look at it still, because I know I wouldn’t have finished my schooling, or have the job I have today, or be able to look after my family, without the generosity of the Irish people.

“When I look at myself on the Trócaire box, I remember the challenges we faced as a family after the Rwandan genocide. My mother was really struggling to survive alone with three young children, living off a small piece of land and constantly facing the threat of hunger.”

Trócaire supported 1.8 million people in 24 countries around the world last year.