Pop-up shop for Carlow charity in Seven Oaks this week

A PARTNERSHIP with Africa (APA), which operates a charity furniture shop on Carlow’s Hacketstown Road, has organised a pop-up event at the Seven Oaks Hotel from the 24 to 26 November.

Visitors to the hotel will come across a variety of clothing, home décor and accessories in the foyer of the hotel. The hotel is hosting the event as a courtesy, and volunteers will be manning the pop-up shop while it is open from 10am to 9pm for the three days.

“The purpose of the pop-up shop is to advertise the work that we do and give the public the opportunity to learn about us and to support us financially,” explained Joe Jennings, project officer with APA.

“We want the pop-up shop to showcase the variety of items that we have in our three shops in Hacketstown, Carlow and Athlone,” said Mr Jennings, adding that of course it was impractical to have furniture from the Carlow shop displayed there.

The three shops are a huge source of income for the charity, which also receives funding from Irish Aid to carry out projects supporting domestic workers in Ethiopia and Tanzania. All proceeds from the pop-up event will go towards their work in empowering vulnerable women and children.

APA was founded by Hacketstown native Father Owen Lambert in 2004. He wanted to focus on supporting young, vulnerable women who work in bars, restaurants and as domestic workers, many of whom are subject to sexual abuse.

“He recognised that, as a category of work, domestic workers were not getting recognised as workers,” said Mr Jennings. They work with CVM, an Italian organisation, to implement their work.

The organisation has grown from strength to strength over the past 20 years and has come close to persuading the Tanzanian government to give legal protections to domestic workers.

Mr Jennings asks if you can’t make it to any of the shops, please visit www.apa.ie, and make a donation.