the Friend - A lasting impact

A lasting impact - preview

Christy Bischoff of Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting, South Carolina, interviewed women and children in Belfast about the effect a year at Quaker Cottage had on their lives

Photo: Christy Bischoff

'I am trying to think of the nearest word you could even use to describe the place

Magic, I suppose, magic how the year started and how the year ended

How different your life could be within a year, how much you could move on

'

Magic: the concept captures something beyond what we are able to put into words

It feels like more is possible than what we imagined

I do think this is a good concept to describe Quaker Cottage, a cross- community family support centre run by the Ulster Quaker Service Committee, serving families in North and West Belfast who have been referred by social and health professionals

Strategically located half way up Black Mountain, with one road down leading to a Protestant estate and one leading to a Catholic estate, the view of Belfast is breathtaking

It is an ideal location for the many women and children who attend a one-year intensive program, to have a break from chaos or violence that may surround their lives

Christy Bischoff

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Comments:

Tony Fitzpatrick, 02 November
In September I visited Quaker Cottage with Janette McKnight, Director of Ulster Quaker Service. My visit was timed so that the women would not be present - the presence of a stranger would have been an unwarrented invasion of their privacy as well as totally skewing the dynamics of the group. However, I had the privilege of spending some time with current and previous members of staff - one of the latter had been a member of the team in the eighties and had brought his wife from Germany to show her the cottage. It became clear that not only does the Cottage experience change the women's lives but also those of the volunteers too, and in very profound ways. Quaker Cottage exemplifies love in action; F/friends go about their work with quiet, determined optimism sharing their lives with families suffering not only from deprivation but from severe social dislocation . Thankfully the levels of inter-communal violence in Northern Ireland are lower now but rebuilding lives, communities and confidence is a long term task in which the Cottage is playing a seminal role.Please remember them in your prayers - and when deciding who your meeting will support financially