She grabbed my arm and said she was so grateful

A Mullingar teacher who has been working with Syrian refugees says it has given her a new purpose.

Fionnagh Nally from Walshestown South, Mullingar has just spent six weeks in Turkey. She works for Concern Worldwide and was in the city of Sanliurfa, helping Syrian refugees who moved to Turkey because of the conflict in their country, which is now in its fifth year.

“Concern is supporting formal education programmes, distributing food baskets, blankets, mattresses and kitchen equipment,” said Fionnagh.

“On one occasion I met a family who were living in a disused filling station and the owner let them stay there for free.

“Indeed, Turkey has shown extraordinary generosity to the Syrians. Over two million Syrians have fled to Turkey.

“The Turkish government runs camps for refugees, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Concern are assisting refugees who are not living in the camps.

“Concern is supporting children, who are attending second-shift-schools – normal Turkish schools that Syrian children use later in the day after the Turkish children have gone home.

“They have Syrian teachers but all the teachers may not necessarily be trained to teach. For example, an architect might be teaching maths but will have no formal training in teaching skills. So Concern is helping bridge the gap.

“Also, there are children who have been traumatised because of the conflict, other children with literacy issues and Concern again is supporting all these programmes,” Fionnagh explains.

Fionnagh refuses to enter into the politics of the situation and makes it clear that Concern never talks about such issues with the people it is assisting.

She said that as a result of an ISIS attack in the city of Kobani in March thousands of people fled from Syria to Turkey.

“Yes, of course people are making their way to Europe. I heard of a 14-year-old boy who made it to Austria with a backpack and a GPS. But many of the people want to return to Syria,” she says.

Fionnagh showed a bruise on her arm. “An elderly woman grabbed my arm to tell me how happy she was that she and her husband were still alive. She was so grateful for what Concern was doing for them.

“When you see something like that, it really convinces you of the great work Concern is doing. My time in Turkey gave new purpose to the work we do in Dublin,” Fionnagh says.

“It warm in Turkey, 45 degrees Celsius. I’m not accustomed to that heat. While I was there I went to Mount Nimrod and to Gobleiki Tepe, the oldest temple in the world, which was discovered three years ago. It is a 20-minute drive from where I was based,” she said.

Before joining Concern eight years ago, Fionnagh taught in Mullingar. Teaching runs in the family as both her mother and father are retired teachers who taught in the town.

Fionnagh studied psychology at Queens and did a post graduate in education in St Pat’s Teacher Training College in Dublin. She did a masters in International Relations in DCU before joining Concern.