New Beginnings and Highlights for 2018
Colletta Dalikeni
For DKIT Welcome College of Sanctuary Steering Group
Here are highlights of some of our events in 2018
Our journey towards making DkIT a College of Sanctuary started on 24th May 2018 with an inaugural meeting of the working group which was attended by members of staff, including Registrar Sheila Flanagan and DkIT Chaplaincy. The wider community of Dundalk, comprising representatives from the
Dundalk County Library, Louth Leader Partnership and representatives from Carroll Village, the local Direct Provision Centre, also attended. Tian Lloyd, Co-ordinator of Places of Sanctuary was also there to support us. During the year we have focused mainly on raising awareness in the DkIT community and in the wider Dundalk community about the philosophy of 
Places of Sanctuary. We have opened DkIT’s doors to asylum seekers and refugees, allowing them space to share their talents. Specifically, we welcomed Joe Odiboh, artist and writer, to showcase his art work on DkIT’s Careers Day. Joe is a member of our welcome group. His work was well received and gave an opportunity to raise awareness about sanctuary.
Christmas 2018
We held secret Santa events for children in our local direct provision centres ( Monsney and Carroll 
Village in Dundulk) to which The DKIT community generously donated Christmas presents for children. This gave us an opportunity to visit and connect with families in DP.
We also received presents from pupils of Gaelscoil Dhún Dealgan for the two direct provision centres.
We hope to further collaborate with the school in building schools of sanctuary .
We hope to connect with other existing colleges of sanctuary in the new year to learn from their experiences.
English