Local Faces: Welome Ojo
By Aideen O'Flaherty
WHEN Welome Ojo moved to Mac Uilliam in Tallaght in 2019, she quickly got acquainted with her new neighbours and began organising clean-ups to tackle issues with illegal dumping in the estate, as she has always been firmly against littering.
Growing up in the bustling Nigerian city of Lagos, Welome said she used to see “heaps of rubbish” on the streets when she was on the bus to primary school.
Welome Ojo, who has always been firmly against litter began organising clean-ups in Mac Uilliam shortly after she moved there in 2019
One of the things that first appealed to her when she moved to Ireland in 2004 was the cleanliness and the abundance of trees, but she still has fond memories of growing up in Nigeria.
“I grew up in a regular family in Lagos,” Welome, who is in her 30s, told The Echo. “It’s a very fast-paced, busy city. It’s one of those places where you really have to move, otherwise you’ll be left behind.
“Growing up in Nigeria, for me, was an interesting experience in the sense that I had my family and friends in the country, which meant I had all the support I needed to have all my needs met as a child.
“But I had to go outside of Lagos for secondary school, I went to a boarding school in Benin City.
“My first year in boarding school was difficult, because I had to learn to stand on my own two feet without my parents or siblings.
“I had a mixture of good and bad feelings about it, but it was a positive experience.”
Welcome Ojo
When Welome was in her early 20s, she decided to move to Ireland, as one of her cousins and several family friends were living here.
“The reason I came to Ireland was because I had family and friends here and I had a cousin here too,” she explained.
“I wanted to travel because I wanted a better future for my children. I wanted to raise a family in a stable and predictable environment.
“I had heard that the people in Ireland were very, very welcoming and homely. But moving here was a big culture shock.
“The electricity would go off a lot in Africa, so when I moved here I would iron all of my clothes in case the electricity would go off.
Welcome Ojo
“There are things you can take for granted here, like good roads, regular electricity, and everywhere being clean – even when you go into housing estates there’s trees.”
Shortly after she arrived in Ireland and moved to Lucan, Welome got married and had two children. After the birth of her second child in 2007, Welome enrolled in IT Tallaght, where she earned a degree in marketing and management in 2011.
It was around this time that Welome became involved in an African Pentecostal church in Ballyfermot, and realised that she was passionate about helping others.
“A lot of people there didn’t have information about things you would normally know about,” she said.
“So I started sign-posting them and counselling them on where to go, and it led to my decision to go into social work – I realised I had a burning passion for it.”
Welome Ojo said Mac Uilliam feels like home and she would miss it a lot if she ever had to leave
Welome them commenced postgraduate studies in social work in UCD. She became a qualified social worker in 2018, and has been a practicing social worker ever since.
The following year, in 2019, Welome and her family were allocated a house in Mac Uilliam and she was committed to being a dedicated part of her new community, by setting up regular clean-ups.
“When I moved in, I saw a huge heap of rubbish on the road and felt so sad about it,” she remembered.
“But I felt like I was there for a reason, and I wanted to make a difference.
“I knocked on every door on the road, got everyone’s contact details, explained to them what my mission was and what I was hoping to do, and I got a really positive response.
“I got a lot of support. There wasn’t one resident who didn’t give me their contact number.”
The regular clean-ups are now a fixture of the estate, and it has built a strong sense of community in the area.
“Since November 2019, I’ve been organising regular clean-ups,” said Welome. “It’s been embraced by the wider estate.
“I want the residents to feel motivated and empowered, and to be able to advocate for themselves.
“We don’t have clean-ups every Saturday, but I do clean up the area around my house every Saturday, and I’ve seen other residents copying that and taking their own initiative to do it.”
Welome has also become something of a mediator in the estate, particularly if there are issues between children from different families.
“When neighbours are having a fight, or two children from different families are clashing, I would mediate between them,” she added.
“I feel happy when I can help to alleviate other people’s problems. It makes me happy to know that they will have some peace and that they can come here and seek support.
“I know some issues exist in the estate, but having the capacity to self-advocate and take the right steps can make an impact in improving Mac Uilliam residents’ quality of life.
“Above all, commitment to improving where you live is really all that is required if you want to see things change. I feel happy now driving into the estate and not seeing piles of rubbish at the entrance.”
As for how she feels about living in Mac Uilliam now, Welome said: “I feel very comfortable. I feel like it’s home to me and I have a lot of friends who appreciate what I do in the area. I would miss it a lot if I ever had to leave.”
