Sister Stanislaus Kennedy wanted to work with poor people from the time when she was growing up on the family farm in Dingle, Co Kerry in the Republic of Ireland. As there were no opportunities to study social work when she left school in 1958, she joined the Irish Sisters of Charity, an order of nuns founded in Ireland in the early 19th century to help the poor.
Today Sister Stan, as she is affectionately called, is well-known in Ireland. She was the first religious sister ever to receive an honorary Doctorate in Law from Trinity College, Dublin; in 1974 she was appointed by the Irish government as the first chair of the National Committee to Combat Poverty (now Combat Poverty Agency); and in 1985 she was chosen by the European Commission to be co-ordinator of the European poverty projects within the EU.
She has written several books, including 'Now is the Time' which last year reached third in the Irish best-seller lists. When we met in November she was in London to launch her latest book, 'Gardening the Soul'.* In this 'spiritual daybook' she provides for each day of the year both a reflection of her own and a quote from a surprisingly disparate range of writers.
One of Sister Stan's best known projects is Focus Ireland, a charity that 'aims to advance the rights of people out-of-home to live in a place they can call home through quality services, research and advocacy'. Today it has a turnover of Irish GBP5 million, of which 80 per cent comes from the government, and a paid staff of 180. It provides accommodation for 300 at any one time, and is building another 300 housing units. Although Sister Stan retired from an executive role in 1995 she is Life President and is often the 'public face' of the charity.
Its roots go back to 1983 when, after some pioneering social work in Kilkenny, Sister Stan went to Dublin to carry out research into homeless women. 'People thought there weren't any,' she says. But her team's comprehensive six-month study found that there were over 500.
In an effort to understand homelessness better, Sister Stan rented the top floor of a building in Dublin and spent a year living with eight homeless young women. 'Their worst experience was the way they were treated--the lack of respect and the rejection,' she says. 'There was a perception that they were no good, lazy, or on drugs, and they became what they were perceived to be.'
She found that little was being done to help homeless people. 'There was no-one on the streets at night to reach out to young people, so they were open to all kinds of exploitation; no drop-in centre where the homeless could get information and advice; no restaurant where they could get good food at a reasonable price; nowhere they would be safe that was a nice place to be.' So in 1985 'we started exactly what we said was needed, Focus Ireland, or Focus Point as it was then'.
The three objectives of Focus Ireland are:
to respond to the needs of people out-of-home and those at risk of becoming homeless, through a range of appropriate high quality services;
to provide emergency transitional and long-term accommodation for people out-of-home;
and to campaign and lobby for the rights of people out-of-home and the prevention of homelessness.
In Focus Ireland's annual report for 2000, their Chief Executive, Declan Jones, explains that the economic boom of 'Celtic Tiger' Ireland has had a downside for many of the most marginalized sections of society. Rising property prices and rents have led to more people on local authority housing waiting lists, and made it necessary for more families to live in emergency and bed-and-breakfast accommodation. 'Worse still is the significant increase in the number of people, often our most vulnerable, who are living on our streets.'
Sister Stan says that Focus Ireland aims to give homeless people pride and dignity by providing 'a continuum of care'--from the point of crisis, through to the home settlement stage. For her, the most important thing is 'the way we treat them. How we do something is as important as what we do', a principle that is also enshrined in the annual report.
In 2000 Sister Stan founded the Sanctuary, a holistic spirituality centre in the heart of Dublin. The aim was to provide a beautiful, harmonious, quiet place for people who live in stressful situations. There are three rooms and three walled gardens devoted to dance and movement, the arts, and 'sacred space'. It is open to anyone who wants to come, she says. Courses are held for people in the locality, and there is a day-time course for those in the caring professions.
Sister Stan sees no conflict between her vocation as a nun and her social work. 'Time for solitude, stillness and prayer is an essential part of my day and my life,' she says. 'I carry that reflective mode into what I do; then I move from action to reflection again. They enhance each other.'
This is also a main theme of her daybook. It is alive with thoughts and insights linked to the changing seasons in a garden. 'In winter it looks as if nothing is happening,' she tells me. 'But everything is happening. During that time the seeds are being nurtured, and without that they could not blossom. Unless we take time to be nurtured in our mind, body and spirit, we'll not be as fruitful as we might be.'
'Lots of people have difficulty with the autumn of life,' she ventures. 'But it should be a time of harvesting and of great wisdom. It's a wonderful time in life.' In the past, older people were wisdom people; but now they are trying to be young.
The purpose of the Sanctuary, as of 'Gardening the Soul', is to show people that life can be different if they build a time of reflection into it. 'But there has to be a consistency about it--you have to be faithful to it,' she warns. 'We can all find our quiet space, if we really want to.'
Ever the activist, as well as the contemplative, Sister Stan is already at grips with a new challenge--one that she admits she's hardly begun--to work with the economic migrants and asylum seekers who have recently started to come into Ireland. 'It's a whole challenge to us to provide for our visitors as good a service and possibilities as we do for our own citizens,' she insists.
*'Gardening the Soul--a spiritual daybook through the seasons', published by Simon and Schuster UK, ISBN 1-903650-05-4, price GBP10 hardback.
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