Barka For Mutual Help Ireland is a registered charity (CHY: 20206478) and provides help and support for migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) who are homeless, or suffering financial and social exclusion here in Ireland.
We were established in 2011 following an approach from Mendicity Institution to Barka in the UK and The Barka Foundation in Poland, which has been helping homeless and vulnerable people there since 1989.
The programme that was set up and which Barka IE operates, involves trained Polish nationals to find the homeless people, engage with them, assist them to get help with their immediate problems, and then assist them to go home where they could be given help to overcome their long term problems.
In the last seven years we have helped 1001 people in this way. The majority of people we work with are Polish, but our service also helps migrants from all Central and Eastern European Countries, in particular an increasing number from Romania.
