Serving homeless for years, a Muslim charity group that runs a soup kitchen in Dublin has said their hearts were broken to read an independent report that criticized on-street homeless services.
The Muslim Sisters of Eire (MSOE) is an independent organization of Muslim women living in Ireland.
Over the past five years, MSOE has been running weekly soup kitchens to help the homeless in Dublin, Ireland.
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“The service we provide is so badly needed and it broke our hearts to read the so called independent report on the soup runs,” the charity said in a post on Facebook, Dublin Live reported.
“It is very insulting, we were scrutinized in March to be HSE registered, to have all our people trained, to do anything HSE wanted us to do which we did.
“We find that utterly insulting and we are tired and if there wasn’t a need then we wouldn’t be leaving our homes at night for feeding the endless queues.”
Another insanely busy night. We had 400 meals. The service we provide is so badly needed and it broke our hearts to read the so called independent report on the soup runs. We wouldn’t be leaving our homes for feeding the hungry if it wasn’t needed. https://t.co/XYKgnzqFEO pic.twitter.com/YllAW7AJEn
— Muslim Sisters of Eire (@Msoe_Dublin) October 23, 2021
Urgent Need
The charity was responding to a report commissioned by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) which called for action “to address risks” posed by such services provided by 20 unofficial homelessness organizations operating in Dublin.
The DRHE report described late night on-street homeless aid providing food, toiletries and clothes as “undignified” and “unsafe”.
The groups “do not have the skills or experience to engage with people who are homeless, and there are examples of their interventions undermining the work of mainstream providers and possibly supporting people to remain on or return to the streets”, independent consultant Mary Higgins said in her report.
With increasing number of homeless people in Dublin, the Muslim Sisters of Eire group has noticed a significant increase in the number of people experiencing food poverty after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Running their soup kitchen outside Dublin’s GPO on O’Connell Street, the Muslim organization say they have been inundated with requests for sleeping bags, warning that homeless people would rather sleep out in the cold than go to a hostel.
Islam lays a great emphasis on the virtue of neighborliness, stressing on Muslims’ individual duty to be good to their neighbors.