Cork Sanctuary runners to run four miles every four hours for 48 hours to raise awareness of plight of those living in direct provision

Wednesday, 28 April 2021 16:24

The Cork branch of a running group are setting out to raise awareness of the plight of those living in the system of direction provision this Bank Holiday weekend.

Ten staff from Carrigaline Community School will be attempting to run four miles every four hours for 48 hours this May Bank Holiday as part of the Sanctuary Runners movement.

It comes as a new study by The Ombudsman for Children found deficiencies in the system in particular that staff were not trained in child protection and that parents were wrongly warned that their children may be removed by child protection services if they did not supervise them properly.

Ten staff from Carrigaline Community School will be attempting to run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours this May Bank Holiday as part of the @SanctuaryRunner movement&to raise awareness about the plight of those living in #directprovision More @RedFMNews @CorksRedFM pic.twitter.com/7osOqPBJOy
— Fiona O'Donovan (@FionaRedFM) April 28, 2021

Speaking to RedFM News Gene Cahill of the Sanctuary Runners says their event this weekend is timely: "Sanctuary runners they're set up to allow Irish people to run alongside people living in direct provision. The Children's Ombudsman, published a report yesterday, which highlighted a lot of abuses within the system, and a lot of failings where child safety in particular is concerned. So, this event I suppose, we're trying to raise awareness of the whole direct provision system, and just raise awareness of the fact that the sanctuary runners, we do enable Irish people and it allows direct provision residents to run alongside Irish people and get to know them on a one to one level."