BOHEMIANS ARE APPEALING for support of their annual Christmas gift drive for children across Direct Provision centres in Ireland. 

Now in its seventh year, the toy drive aims to raise enough money to supply every child living in Direct Provision with a gift this Christmas. The programme has raised more than €500,000 since its inception, and this year seeks a target of €80,000, which would give each child a gift worth €30. 

Bohemians are conducting the toy drive in conjunction with Bang Bang Cafe in Phibsborough, with gifts to be sorted at the RDS and delivered around the country by DHL. 

Speaking to The 42, Bohemians Chief Operating Officer Daniel Lambert said that supporting the toy drive is a way of showing that Ireland cares about children who are living in Direct Provision centres through no decision of their own.

“Yesterday, the hero who stepped in yesterday is a non-national, which shows there are good and bad people the vast majority of whom are good, in every community and group of people”, Lambert told The 42, following yesterday afternoon’s stabbing incident near a school in Dublin city centre. 

“Across the world, most people are good people. To see a racist and xenophobic reaction is disgusting. Our toy drive has run for seven years now. It aims to do something very simple: kids who are in Direct Provision are children and are not part of the decision-making that led to them living in a Direct Provision centre. We want to get one gift for each kid, to show that Ireland cares for them. Thousands of people have donated to enable thousands of children to get a gift.

“This action is a simple action, one people have supported with over half a million euro over the last few years, and if we can get to our target again this year, it’s a good thing, and demonstrates the vast majority of Irish people don’t support racist sentiment, and don’t support people on the far right who claim people who come here from abroad are somehow lesser, or dangerous.” 

You can donate online at this link.