Walking in the shoes of the homeless – real-life stories in challenging times

By Mary Dennehy

COMING to Dublin as a refugee in 1999, Modinat Bonaji has, after some difficult times, been settled in Tallaght with her two children for the past seven years.

Faced with challenging times, Modinat believes that people’s misconceptions and false impressions of refugees have resulted in people misjudging her in the past.

However, she hopes that a community-led, two-day event in Tallaght this October will help people to see the real-life stories behind Tallaght’s homeless and those who came to the area seeking refuge.

Modinat is one of a number of people participating in an event called Come Walk in My Shoes, which, organised by a cluster of Tallaght parishes, will provide people with an opportunity to speak with individuals and families, both from Tallaght and other countries, who have become homeless for a number of reasons.

The event hopes to break down preconceptions and statistics around homelessness, showing the people and families behind the numbers – by giving people the chance to tell their stories.

Modinat told The Echo: “I have went through a lot of things and life has been very difficult.

“However, one of the things that makes everything worse is when people judge.

“People have an impression of me, they think they know me, but they do not, and I think this community project will be very good in raising awareness around refugees and people who are homeless – we are all the same at the end of the day.”

Last Saturday, a storytelling workshop, facilitated by Tallaght Community Arts (TCA), was attended by a number of local people who have experienced homelessness due to a number of diverse reasons.

People from Tallaght who have never experienced homelessness were also present, and engage in the project and assist in telling the stories of the homeless.

Living in Kingswood, Betty Fitzpatrick told The Echo: “When I came to Dublin in the early sixties, homelessness was not something people talked about.

“There were poor people, but nobody looking for a bed or sleeping on the streets as visibly as today, so up until now I never had the opportunity to try and understand homelessness or the people affected by it.”

She added: “However, taking part in the storytelling project on Saturday really opened my eyes.

“It was a wonderful day and everybody mixed so well.

“It really provided people with no experience of homelessness with a great opportunity to understand and I would encourage the wider community to engage with Come Walk in my Shoes.”

Come Walk in my Shoes will run across a number of Tallaght parishes on October 1 and 2 and anybody interested in supporting the two-day event is encouraged to visit the Come Walk in my Shoes Facebook page.

The community-led event has been organised by the parishes of St Kevin’s, St Killian’s, St Mary’s, St Aengus’s and St Dominic’s in collaboration with Tallaght Community Arts and with support from Focus Ireland Tallaght, the Intercultural Centre, local social justice groups and The Echo newspaper, which is the project’s media partner.