Comhlámh Says Goodbye to Caoimhe Butterly

As our Erasmus+ funded “Working for a Better World” project concludes, we are very sorry to be saying goodbye to our colleague, Caoimhe Butterly. Since November 2019, Caoimhe coordinated this project, which aimed to resource migrant solidarity responders within their increasingly difficult work. She worked tirelessly to support internal and collective psychological and emotional safety, developing innovative resources and training on psychosocial resilience.

The project was realised during a global pandemic, and against a background of war, conflicts, and the increasing criminalisation of humanitarian responses across Europe.  All of us – within Comhlámh and across our partner organisations in Greece, Italy and Spain – learned so much from Caoimhe’s focus on creating spaces for vulnerability, grief, and meaning-making. Her ability to introduce and make concepts such as moral injury and trauma-informed approaches accessible has been invaluable for our collective work and understanding of grounded and sustainable engagement.

We are so grateful to Caoimhe for her contributions across all areas of Comhlámh’s work; and would also like to thank her son, Tadhg, for his patience throughout many long lockdown meetings. We look forward to continuing this important work together over the coming months and years.

We are going to miss Caoimhe – her kindness, positive attitude and deep commitment to refugees, asylum seekers and those working with and supporting them. We would like to take this opportunity and wish Caoimhe all the best in the future!