Calleary to volunteer with VSO in Mozambique

Calleary to volunteer with VSO in Mozambique


Anton McNulty

MAYO TD, Dara Calleary will be travelling to the African country of Mozambique this Saturday where he will volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
The Minister for Labour Affairs is one of four members of the Oireachtas who will be flying to different countries in Africa and Asia to serve as VSO volunteers. Minister Calleary will be flying out to Mozambique where he will liaise with different NGO’s in the country.
“I will be spending a week with different NGO’s and work with them on issues like lobbying strategies and using my position to get access at various meetings. A large part of the trip will be meeting people living with HIV which is particularly bad in Mozambique,” he told The Mayo News.
VSO is the world’s leading independent, international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. Volunteers are recruited from Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, the Philippines, Kenya and India, and work in over 40 countries worldwide.
Each year, members of the Oireachtas travel to countries in Africa and Asia to serve as VSO volunteers and Minister Calleary was approached by Castlebar native Malcolm Quigley, who established VSO in Ireland in 2004 to take part in the programme.
Minister Calleary will spend four days working with different charities based in the Maputo, the capital of Mozambique and another day working in rural parts of the country. He will also work with Irish Aid who are based in Maputo before heading home.
He said he was looking forward to the trip and following up on what can be done to help the charities.
“I am looking forward to the trip eventhough I am not sure what to expect. It will be something completely different to what I am used to but I have been interest in African issues for a long time. I have spoke to a few colleagues who have been on similar trips before hand and they say it was worthwhile and the majority continue to do work with them afterwards. The visit will only be one part of it and the follow-up work will be the most important part,” he said.
Claremorris native and Fine Gael TD, Lucinda Creighton (pictured) will also be volunteering with VSO when she travels to Uganda where she will work with an alliance of volunteering organisations and liaise with parliamentarians on ways to promote volunteering in their country.