A charity in Enniskillen has recently recruited and trained its 100th volunteer.
Home-Start Lakeland has provided help and friendship to 800 families in County Fermanagh with young children over the past 25 years, visiting them in their homes each week.
Their volunteers spend two to three hours with each family, doing activities with the children, offering emotional support to parents, and providing practical assistance.
This can include giving lifts, minding children so parents can attend medical appointments, or helping sort out the children’s clothes.
Families can reach out to Home-Start Lakeland for help themselves or be referred by health professionals, voluntary, and community services.
Many of their volunteers joined the charity to give back but found they also benefited from the experience.
The charity is currently looking for more volunteers to meet the demand from families in need of help.
Praising Home-Start Lakeland, a supported parent hailed it as “a service so under appreciated until you are desperately in need, it has been beyond what words could describe".
Continuing, they said: "A service I didn’t know existed but needed to get me and my family through the difficult and hard times. I am so grateful for it.”
A spokeswoman for the charity said: "Home-Start Lakeland are currently recruiting new volunteers to meet the demand of referred families.
"So if you love cuddling babies, take delight in the imagination of a toddler at play, can provide a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on, we would love to hear from you."
Those interested can contact the charity by calling 028 6634 6818, emailing info@homestartlakeland.org.uk, or messaging their Facebook page.
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