A FERMANAGH man is helping the community in Ibiza recover from the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the island.

Dwayne Nolan, from Enniskillen, has been using his profile with Ibiza Club News to raise funds and awareness for those who are suffering from food poverty in Ibiza, which has been severely hit by the collapse of tourism.

He has been living in Ibiza for more than ten years after he left Enniskillen to begin working in bars on the party island, and now runs his own company that specialises in bringing ‘club news’ to people who wish to travel to Ibiza.

Explaining his decision to branch out into helping people, he said: “This summer I decided that there was no income coming in from the [club] businesses as we’d shut up.

"I started pushing my YouTube channel, that I've been working on for a number of years.

"As I was coming towards the end of the [reduced clubbing] season, I was starting to think about how I could help people and small businesses on the island through the YouTube channel.

"That's when it was pointed out that there was a serious issue with [food poverty] in Ibiza.”

Dwayne felt compelled to act. “I reached out to Ibiza Food Bank, that provides for more than 2,000 families at the moment.

"They expect that figure to be somewhere between 10 to 15,000 families in the next few weeks – last week, 67 families signed up for the food bank in three days, looking for help.”

This number is shocking, given that Ibiza itself is almost three times smaller than County Fermanagh.

Dwayne has seen first-hand the devastating impact of travel bans on an economy that relies heavily on British and Irish tourists.

He said: “You see the extent of the problem. You’re now supporting people who have had homes here for years, and successful businesses have just been taken away from them, because there has been more or less no tourism on the island.”

Dwayne detailed his experience on YouTube, but spoke about the impact of visiting the food bank.

He said: “Going to a food bank, for me, was a real reality check. People have a perception that Ibiza is a really glitzy, glamorous island where only the rich people come, and it's only for tourism.

"But the food bank has allowed me to see that there are a lot of families here that are in desperate need. Kids are going hungry; you can forget that this is an island where so many people live normal lives.”

As well as using YouTube to promote raising awareness for food poverty in Ibiza, Dwayne hosted a food drive last weekend.

He said: "The British and Irish Association in Ibiza saw my video and they're good friends of mine and they wanted to help.

"We decided that we were going to do a food drive, in San Antonio, and just ask people to donate food.

"People come here and spend so much money, and there is big companies that do generate hundreds of millions a day here, but they tend not to give too much away.”

Dwayne and his friends have also set up a GoFundMe page to try to help the people of Ibiza. If you would like to help hit its €35,000 target, see https://www.gofundme.com/f/ibiza-food-bank/.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Dwayne’s work in Ibiza you can follow him on YouTube under the username, 'Dwayne Muffin'.