Waterford Samaritans to hold open day in appeal for more volunteers
Samaritans volunteers answer around 1,500 calls a day nationwide
Samaritans Waterford branch is appealing for new volunteers on Saturday, January 24. The charity will be hosting a volunteer open day from 10 am-3 pm at their offices on 16 Beau Street.
“Since Covid, volunteerism is not as easy as what it was,” said Samaritans Waterford Brand Publicity Officer Geraldine Guiry.
“Some people found it hard to get back into it, so we lost a number of volunteers. We're working on trying to get our numbers of volunteers back up, but I know loads of charities are struggling.
“What you get from being a volunteer is you go in to do your duty, and no matter how you're feeling going in, you go in, you listen, listen, listen, listen, providing empathy for people.
You leave feeling a million times better. You feel on top of the world when you leave.”
The mental health and suicide prevention charity will celebrate 50 years in Waterford on March 1.
Ms Guiry said Samaritans operate an open-door policy, with new volunteers provided with in-house training and mentorship.
“Our main aim is to prevent more people dying by suicide,” she said.
“Having said that, we provide a listening service for everybody, and we have people who ring us purely because they're lonely.
“We might have a farmer up in Mayo somewhere, and he's just ringing up because he hasn't seen anybody for two or three days and he wants to chat.”
The service operates on a 24/7, 365 basis and is 100% confidential. The charity’s hunting system means inbound calls are passed to a readily available volunteer rather than being determined by caller location.
Samaritans Waterford can be reached at 085 777 6727 or www.samaritans.ie/Waterford.
