A NEW project initiated yesterday by the Galway Traveller Movement will provide support services for women who may face obstacles when seeking to earn an income.
The project, endorsed in Ballybane by one of Ireland’s 10 EU ambassadors for female entrepreneurship, Liz Cassidy, is supported by the European Social Fund and the Department of Justice and Equality.
Traveller women were urged to overcome their fears and find their “inner entrepreneur”.
Bridget Kelly, from Athenry, Co Galway, told The Irish Times: “There is an entrepreneur in every woman, but you have to overcome the fear of losing social welfare and the fear of discrimination.”
Ms Kelly, a member of the Travelling community, set up a fireplace business with her husband, who is from the settled community, seven years ago.
“It was back in 2004, and my husband saw an empty shop unit in Loughrea and we came up with an idea for it,” she said.
“We sat down and did the homework and went for it . . . but I was afraid of losing the social welfare at the time, and was afraid of the stigma,” she said.
Their business markets fireplaces and gates from their home in Athenry.
Ms Kelly is currently a part-time specialist trainer with the Galway Traveller Movement.
The Empowering Traveller Women’s Entrepreneurs project focuses on seeing “opportunities rather than obstacles”, Ms Kelly said, and believes in building on women’s skills in creativity and adaptation.
Ms Cassidy said that women entrepreneurs had to overcome “unique barriers such as lack of confidence and self-belief, fear of failure and juggling the demands of their business and personal lives”.
“These barriers are not insurmountable because women are blessed with unique attributes such as resilience, focus and staying power,” she said.
The project has identified opportunities in specialist flower bouquets; training services; event management; alterations, clothing design and dressmaking; and also a development of a social and cultural venue for Travellers.
Many of these opportunities meet the demands within the Travelling community, for the reason that “Travellers know what Travellers want,” the association’s mentor Anne Costello said.
The Galway Traveller Movement has additionally established a Traveller Enterprise Development Unit.
“Our vision is that by 2020, the Traveller economy in Galway city and county will be flourishing,” the movement’s co-ordinator Margaret O’Riada said.
“Travellers will be part of an ever-widening range of innovative community businesses and private enterprises,” she forecast.
Last week, President Michael D Higgins noted that Travellers have rights to their way of life, but the Travelling community’s “women and children have rights too”.
“It is a balance of rights, some of which must be resolved within the Traveller community,” he said.
“We should all of us, within the settled and the Traveller communities, have the intelligence and commitment to solve all these issues,” he said.
