This morning on Dermot & Dave, they spoke about Direct Provision Centres here in Ireland.
Chawa Ndlovu is originally from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. She formerly worked in Health and Safety in the engineering sector in her home country but due to a number of factors felt she had to leave for her own safety.
She arrived in Ireland in November, 2019. Initially she was moved to the Balseskin Reception Centre in Dublin, then to emergency accommodation (a Travel Lodge in Swords), from there to Cahersiveen and the doomed Skellig Star Hotel where she was one of 20 to contract Covid19.
She was moved to isolation in the Vienna Woods Hotel in Cork and after that to emergency accommodation on Bolton Street in Dublin. At the moment her accommodation, where food is provided, is relatively good but her mad journey across Ireland in just nine-months shows the calamity of the Direct Provision system.
Chawa has always run, as much for her head as her body. When locked down in Cahersiveen and then in Cork she always took part in our online Sanctuary Strength classes with the Olympic Rower and Sanctuary Runners’ organiser Claire Lambe.
Hit play to hear Chawa's full chat with Dermot below.
