19/12/2025
This Christmas Day, Marem will volunteering with Depaul Ireland. Ending Homelessness. This is her story...
“It might sound a bit selfish, but everyone talks about how volunteering is about helping others. And yes, it is about that. But I feel the core value of volunteering is that through helping others, you understand more about yourself.
I’m an international volunteer from Estonia through the European Solidarity Corps. I wanted to be part of an organisation that was making a difference. When I researched DePaul, their work was inspiring, their values really spoke to me. Now I’m here for 12 months!
I’m volunteering in two services: Tus Nua, which focuses on women, and Rendu apartments, their family service. I enjoy working with women and with Christmas around the corner, it’s been a lot more festive, and a lot busier.
Day to day, I prepare different activities, it might be our regular breakfast club, baking, arts and crafts. We also have different outings, we brought the families to see the lights at Dublin Zoo.
Christmas is a big deal for people. All the presents, all the festivities. But for people in the homeless centre, it might be really isolating. The activities that we’re doing, they’re to show these women that there is someone who cares about them, that they’re not alone. It’s a couple of hours where they’re having a nice time, they’re having a chat. And for them, that might be important.
It can be hard to realise what they're going through, but what keeps me going is seeing them showing up for themselves. They inspire me, especially the ladies with kids, and they still show up for themselves and they still show up for their kids. They believe in themselves, they believe in the fact that their life can get better. I think that's super inspiring.
Before Christmas, we have the big Christmas party with Santa, while everyone is still here. On Christmas Day itself, some of ladies will go to their families. For the ones that stay, we're going to prepare a Christmas lunch, and we will focus on the positive things, the fact that we're surrounded by people that care about each other, and we’ll just sit together and chat. It won’t be party, party. It's going to be more calming and communal.
Christmas has never been a big thing in my family, so I don’t mind missing it. I’m missing being away from home, but for this year, I feel like I'd rather be here.
I have learned so much from these ladies. I have learned so much from this experience. And I just know that next year and the year after that, I'm most likely going to spend Christmas with my family and with my friends.
And that's why I feel like this year is so special. I'm surrounded by people that were going through so much, but they're still there. The amount of gratitude that you get, for maybe just having a chat, is enormous.
So, I don't feel sad to be away for Christmas. I'm even more excited, because I know that most likely I'm not going to such a special and unusual experience like this one again.”
