Volunteering – New Horizon Athlone

Volunteering offers many benefits to people in the asylum-seeking process.

It:

Builds community resources
Allows you to practice a new language
Builds networks of contacts
Gives you new skills
Helps your physical and mental health

You can register as a volunteer with the Westmeath Volunteer Centre.

Here you can:

Find out about volunteering opportunities without having to make a commitment.
Get information on hundreds of different volunteering opportunities.
Talk to someone on the how, why and where of volunteering.
Get ongoing support and advice if you want it.

FAQ’s

We are a front line refugee support group mainly working on the Lissywollen Direct Provision site in Athlone. Our focus is on providing information and help to the 300 (on average) residents living there.

We also work on the Temple Direct Provision site in Horseleap, Moate.

Everyone in the DP sites in Athlone and Temple is what is described as a ‘Convention’ refugee. People who have arrived in Ireland under a United Nations resettlement program are known as ‘Programme’ refugees.

Convention refugees are people who have made their own way to Ireland and have applied for recognition of refugee status when they arrive.

Various official and unofficial routes and methods are used to travel to Ireland. These change continually, depending on weather conditions and enforcement levels at crossings.

On arrival people are normally housed for a few weeks in Baleskin, near Dublin airport. They are then dispersed to various direct provision centres around the country.

People can get protection if they meet the conditions set out in The United Nations Convention on Protection of Refugees.

See Definition of a Refugee