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This is an excerpt of From Addiction to Activist: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes – A Beacon of Hope for People by ATD Fourth World Activist Andrew Kelly. This book can be downloaded for free.

Before I was discharged from hospital I was advised to get involved in the community and to get engaged in work which would give me a sense of purpose. Soon after arriving home, I returned to the ATD Ireland meetings which I had been attending off and on with my friend, Paul, who had introduced me to the organisation. ATD is an international non-governmental organisation which aims to eradicate persistent poverty and social exclusion by recognising the role of people living in poverty in working for change.

They believed that people living in poverty have unique knowledge which can help the public to understand the barriers which separate people and which cause poverty. Paul believed that I would like the atmosphere and the people who worked in ATD Ireland. The two permanent volunteers who were heading the Irish team at the time were husband and wife, Pierre and Fabienne. Pierre is a dynamic and energetic French man and Fabienne is a quiet and gentle woman.

They both have an enormous commitment to ATD Ireland. When I first met them, I immediately felt accepted and respected by them. They were also very welcoming to my wife and children. While Pierre was light-hearted and could be very amusing and funny he became very serious when listening to our experiences of living in persistent poverty or speaking about them. The commitment of the team to the mission of ATD Ireland was very evident and supportive. As time passed, I became more familiar with the goals and values of ATD Ireland. The ATD Ireland members lived what they believed. They had a good understanding of the impact of poverty on the lives of families and individuals, and everybody was treated with respect and friendship.

As time progressed, I discovered that the spirit in which Pierre and Fabienne related to people and the work they did was part of being a member of ATD Ireland. I experienced that the values which Fabienne and Pierre live are those lived by Dann, the current team leader, who replaced Pierre and Fabienne when they left Ireland to continue the work in Brussels and by Tara, a very able and committed member of the ATD Ireland team.

They are also the values which shone through the attitudes, values and work of the two pioneer members, Isabelle and Stuart, who in 1999 established ATD in Ireland. They are two remarkable people who gave up successful careers to live and work as members of ATD international.

When I returned to ATD Ireland, I discovered that they had a new project which interested me. Initially, and because of the Covid pandemic, communication was online and was managed through Facebook messaging. The ATD Ireland group which I had joined produced a book with the title “Lockdown Liberties”. The group enabled me to escape the reality in which I lived. In the group we used poetry to describe how we felt about lockdown and its impact. We wrote about personal pain and the more general pain which was experienced by the population. I wrote the following poem:

Choose which face to put on
Rather than depression
Choose to wear a smile
If only for a while
Throw away the mask
And know that life is a task
A task to get through the day
Just, chin up I am here to stay

Today men are told not to show emotion. We are told, “You must be strong. It is weak to be sad”. “So, throw away the mask and start showing emotion.” Until this stage in my life, I had been putting on a mask and pretending that everything was all right when it was not. Experience was teaching me that to continue this road would be self-destructive. It could lead to having a dormant volcano which would one day erupt and destroy myself and those I love.

Copies of our book went to New York, Michigan and Australia. Our group were delighted that our work was being read with great interest in Ireland and far beyond. The book was published as lockdown ended and this meant that we could meet in person instead of communicating online. I began to participate in different meetings. We were given the opportunity to speak with social work students in universities.

The first of these was Trinity College Dublin and this led to invitations to do similar work with other colleges and groups. I learned that we in ATD Ireland could share our experience of living in poverty with students and help them to better understand what it is like to live in poverty, to always struggle to make ends meet, to be homeless and always worried about our children’s future.

We hoped that our sharing would give them a better understanding of the impact on families of never having enough to meet the cost of living or to deal with emergencies. We also hoped that these students would begin to reflect on their own attitudes and responses and as a result develop empathy, respect and compassion for people dependent on the state and on social workers to meet many of their needs.

Read Addiction to Activist: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes – A Beacon of Hope for People