Today, on International Women’s Day, the Government took a significant step towards protecting the rights of women in Ireland by ratifying the Istanbul Convention. The ratification of this Convention comes after years of campaigning by NGOs including the Irish Observatory on Violence against Women, which Pavee Point is a member. The Council of Europe Convention […]

“Traveller Women need to take the time to look after their own health,” says Mary Collins, Traveller Community Health Worker, “Health and well-being go together. Traveller women are taken up with looking after their families and sometimes they forget about themselves.” Traveller Community Health Workers work in their own communities raising awareness about health issues, […]

New Film on Traveller Women ‘The Changemakers’  is a documentary by the National Traveller Women’s Forum that looks at some of the changes  Traveller women have succeeded in bringing about – for themselves, for their own community and for the wider population.  It was shown in Leinster House house this week in celebration of International […]

While the Government achieve an overall ‘C’ grade in Report Card 19, published by the Children’s Rights Alliance a low grade, ‘D-’, is awarded in relation to Traveller and Roma Children. This represents a small but significant decrease on the ‘D+’ attributed last year. Homelessness “While there has been welcome progress on the National Traveller […]

We were delighted to get to meet Health Minister, Simon Harris TD last week (21 Feb) and to get his endorsement for the Traveller Health Action Plan. Crucial to the success of this plan is the establishment of a Planning Advisory Body for Traveller Health (PATH) which should be staffed and resourced to ensure the […]

There has been no tangible improvement in the education, accommodation, employment and health of Travellers and Roma  despite the Government’s National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy launched in June 2017,  a report to the European Commission states. Accommodation Worse According to this report, the inequality gap between Travellers and Roma, and the majority population remains […]

Pavee Point received two ‘plain English’  awards this week for our maternal health initiative – Pavee Mothers, awarded by the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA). Our booklet Pavee Mothers was awarded 2nd place out of 70 nominations in the Best Use of Plain English by an Organisation category . Our website paveemothers.ie  received a “highly […]

Pavee Mothers was part of the showcase of HSE Excellence Awards which took place in the Mansion House last week.  Our project, is a phone friendly website developed with  Traveller women for Traveller women with information to support mothers-to-be during and after pregnancy. The awards reflect the high quality of work being undertaken with the HSE.  […]

Bianca Paun, representing Pavee Point’s Roma programme, addressed the Holocaust Memorial event in the Mansion House to talk about the experience of the Roma people at the hands of the Nazis. The Holocaust known as Parajomas in the Romani language meaning ‘the devouring’  saw an estimated 500,000 Roma murdered by the Nazis. https://vimeo.com/313812059 Damaris Paun […]

The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) published today its findings 2018 on the follow-up given by 8 States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal) to decisions in the collective complaints procedure. It says that none of the five issues on which the committee found against Ireland in December 2015 on Traveller accommodation have […]

Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre calls for legislation to be amended to ensure that temporary emergency halting sites should meet fire safety and planning regulations. A Terrible Time “This has been a terrible time for the Lynch, Gilbert and Connors families who have had to relive the horror of that night in 2015.  We […]

A new Domestic Violence Act 2018 is here – get up to date with new laws. The Domestic Violence Act 2018 is the law on domestic violence in the Republic of Ireland. The Act brings many positive changes to make sure that victims of domestic violence are protected. Some changes include: No Forced Marriages (S.38) […]

We were delighted this week to hear of an award, by the Department of Justice & Equality, of €500,000 Dormant Account Funds to 7 organisations across the country to generate employment for members of the Roma Community . This is in line with Government commitments in the Roma Needs Assessment and the National Traveller Roma Inclusion Strategy.  […]

Mary Brigid Collins addressed the All Ireland Chief Nursing Officers Conference at Dublin Castle on the 4th December. Mary Brigid, assistant co-ordinator of the Pavee Point Primary Health Care Project,  spoke to a packed conference on a collective Community Development approach to addressing Traveller issues in health.  The Conference focused on the routes to reform […]

On December 14th in 1918, Irishwomen got the chance to cast their hard won right to vote for the first time. Two women, Countess Constance Markievicz In St Patrick’s ward in Dublin, and Winifred Carney in East Belfast, would also stand for election. Other political women, who had fought long & hard for the vote […]

In the run up to Human Rights Day 2018 our workers have been busy.  Gabi Muntean,  Roma Community Worker and Tessa Collins, Traveller Community Worker were both speaking up for equality for Traveller and Roma this week. “I will tell you a short story about a Roma family that came to Ireland in 2007…”  Read […]

16 Days of Action Today marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Action Opposing Violence Against Women – a time to come together and work to prevent and end violence against women around the world. The campaign runs from the 25th of November, the International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women, to the […]

Photo: (L to R) Patrick Reilly, Pavee Point, Nuala Kelly, Pavee Point, Sheila Nunan, ICTU, Des Geraghty, Ethel Buckley SIPTU and Michael Halpenny Front Row (L to R) Michael Farrell, Fr Peter McVerry, Lucky Khambule, Bernadette McAliskey. ‘We Shall Overcome Civil Rights – the Struggle Continues’ was a seminar held in Liberty Hall on the 10th […]