Elderly urged to help immigrants

Active retirement groups around the country have been encouraged to take on the teaching of English to immigrants, following the success of a project in Summerhill, Co Meath.

Under the Fáilte Isteach project, about 10 older volunteers at the Third Age Centre in the village have been holding one-to-one conversation classes with people from countries such as Argentina, Poland, Lithuania and Moldova.

The Tuesday night classes, running since October, have a different theme every week, and have already tackled issues such as visiting the doctor and going shopping.

The lessons are having a real impact on the village, according to Mary Nally, chairwoman of the Third Age Centre. "It's helping foreign nationals to integrate. People know each other now and when they meet on the street they are all on first name terms," she said.

"We had one man who hadn't one word of English when he started, but now he's getting there."

Some of the students are couples with children and they take turns attending the classes so that nobody misses out.

She said the local school was particularly pleased as some immigrant parents were finding it difficult to help children with homework. "There was one young mother who couldn't go shopping unless she had her child with her," she said.

"A simple thing like visiting the doctor can be very hard if you don't speak English. We have talked about things like how to say that you have a sore throat or that your child has a temperature." The volunteers have also helped immigrants deal with form filling.

Ms Nally said the students were "so eager and so grateful that we are helping them like this and that we are doing it for free".

She said it was good for the older volunteers too as it introduced them to different cultures and nationalities. Students were bringing in photographs of their children and talking about their families back home.

At Christmas, the teachers and students brought in foods and drinks that they associated with Christmas in their own countries.

"We are absolutely thrilled with it. It's really working very well," Ms Nally said.

She said the project had the potential to be replicated all over the country. "It's so very simple and could easily be rolled out in other parts of the country by active retirement groups.

"But it need not be confined to older people. There's nothing to stop all sorts of groups from taking this on."

The Fáilte Isteach project will be officially launched in Summerhill next month.