Duffily Bag...!!!

Duffy entered the Irish “BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition" and presented a waterproof, fireproof sleeping bag and was noticed by the Mendicity Institution, a homeless charity in Dublin.

Mendicity offered her a deal: They would set up a workshop where service users would learn how to make their own sleeping bags and get paid for it.

 “They tested them out, made a few modifications to fit what they wanted and that's how the Duffily bag came to be.” The sleeping bags are being distributed at the Merchants Quay Night Café in Dublin and several were sent for migrants and refugees in Calais, northern France.

The sleeping bag workshop runs twice a week and is meant for long-term homeless who have no entitlements in Ireland. It’s providing them with a sense of achievement, of pride, for a product that they actually take from start and they actually see it finished. 

Sometimes they take on the role of helping the newer people training them so that helps them become responsible and stay sober. They are paid 20 euros (about $22.50) per session.

Duffy, still in school, works closely with The Mendicity staff but she has also moved on to other projects.

To whom [little] much is given much is expected.     Just a thought.