Celebrating differences

Camphill Communities of Ireland is part of a worldwide charitable trust that works with people with special needs.

In a Camphill community, volunteers and disabled people share a home and working life. Each person contributes what they can, according their abilities.

In 1991, Mischa Fekete and his wife Gese travelled from Germany and helped found The Bridge Camphill community in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.

The couple chose Kilcullen because of its “strong community spirit” and its links with the Dublin commuter belt.

“There’s still enough life going on – it’s not just this tiny place!” Mischa laughs.

With the help of some friends, Mischa and Gese founded a more integrated community for people aged 20—25 (the age dynamic has expanded since then – the oldest member today is 60-years-old).

Located in the middle of the town, The Bridge community run a farm and a fruit and vegetable shop and a café called An Tearmann.

Today, the community has 50 members, 20 of whom have disabilities.

“We spend most of our time feeding the animals, harvesting vegetables….but in the afternoon I work in the kitchen,” says
German student and new volunteer Ben Schrüder.

Ben found it hard to adapt to the Camphill way of life at first.

“In the beginning it was very strange, sometimes really too much,” he says. “I was always with people and never had time on my own.
But after a while I really got used to it, and now it’s okay. I even miss everyone on my day off.”

Author Siodhna Kavanagh has lived in Camphill for over 20 years.
She describes it as a “life-sharing community”.

“We are not a hippy community. We are normal people,” she says.

Some people discriminate against Siodhna because she uses a wheelchair:

“I went to a pub in Dublin three weeks ago, and the man asked my friend if ‘the girl in the wheelchair’ was allowed have a beer. Just because you’re in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you can’t have a beer or a coffee. Being a wheelchair doesn’t mean you’re stupid,” she says.

The Bridge has changed a lot of Kilcullen people’s attitudes to special needs.

“It is a great addition to our town,” says local librarian Julie Donoghue. “I think it has changed a lot of people’s attitudes to special needs.

“The people I meet in An Tearmann have their own personalities and they can be cheerful one day, cranky the next – just like me. It makes me more comfortable about being around people who are different.”