Last Christmas we launched our new initiative GoCar for Good where we highlight great initiatives and work that organisations and charities do when using our vehicles.
Our first GoCar for Good hero was Louisamay Hanrahan, who is the founder of Lets Help Direct Provision who provide necessary products to asylum seekers in the Irish Direct Provision system. Lets Help Direct Provision used our vehicles for a number of drops to Direct Provision centres over the Christmas period.
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We sat down (virtually) with Louisamay and asked her a few questions about the Lets Help Direct Provision initiative, their achievements and what the plans are for 2021 and beyond.
What got you motivated to get involved in the project?
At the beginning of the Pandemic I had someone from Direct Provision reach out to a volunteer group I had on Instagram. They requested Hygiene products be sent to our center. Once we got goods to their center we just kept going. The more I witnessed as I went to the center the more motivated I became to help out.
How long have you been using GoCar for transporting the donations?
I started using GoCar last September. Our drops were getting bigger in size and it was much more efficient to use a van or a bigger car! We also can end up driving a couple of hours a day so it’s much better to have a good car for that.
How often would you do these drops throughout the year? & What are your biggest challenges?
Before Christmas we were averaging one a week. Our biggest challenge is time and navigating the rules of the Pandemic. As we go on I’m getting better at delegating and getting volunteers involved. This means we can increase the volumes & numbers of our drops.
Share with us the statistics & your achievements to date with Let’s Help Direct Provision
We’ve distributed almost 200K worth of Donations in the past 6 months. The companies we’ve received donations from has been mindblowing. Spotlight Oral Care, Lush, Moyee Coffee, GoCar, Kind Bars and many more. People have been amazing too. Thanks to everyone following the page we were able to get over 3k worth of vouchers to adults in DP and 5k worth of presents to kids.
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What are your future plans?
We want to keep improving the quality of our Drops. Because we spend time partnering with companies we get products for cheaper than the cost price or for free. This allows us to have a large impact for centers. For example, right before Christmas we had 10 laptops and 10 smartphones donated with an estimated value of 20k.
These partnerships mean that we make donations we get stretched way further than if we were to purchase the product itself. Hygiene products are something everyone needs, by supplying these we are freeing up money in their weekly stipend to spend somewhere else. So thus us giving donations to centers is similar in a way to giving a voucher as it frees up cash for them… but also we can get them these goods at a cheaper cost price then if they were to buy it themselves.
So what drops do we have planned for this year?
Naomi, my trusty partner in crime is starting back this week and we will finalize our plan for the coming months. Our aim is to expand our drops and improve our system of getting goods to new moms in DP. We’ve almost done a full year of drops so now will be able to plan further into the future ensuring we have delivered more of what’s needed to each center (school supplies, winter clothes, hygiene products, baby products etc.)
How can people get involved?
We have a website letshelpdirectprovision.com. You can donate to support us here and sign up to volunteer here. We also help educate people about DP and we do that here.
We thank Louisamay for her time in participating in this interview. If you are using or know an organisation using our vehicles to help others, please get in touch with us on any of our social channels | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter or email us on info@gocar.ie and we’ll be more than happy to share the great work!
