Playgroup issues SOS

Alarmed that their funding streams have dried up, and unsure of where funding will come from in the future, the children of Jack and Jill Playgroup , their carers and supporters, clutching plaques staged a rally calling for support from potential funders and politicians.

Based on Trench Road in the grounds of Immaculate Conception College, the playgroup has been operating successfully for 14 years and offers places for 24 children, as well as providing employment for five people.

However, the equilibrium of the group is now threatened, according to committee member Jacqueline McLaughlin, who said the group’s woes began about 18 months ago when the Department of Social Development decided to withdraw funding, forcing the group to eat into its savings.

“The group lost its funding 18 months ago. We have been open for 14 years and for the past year and a half we have been using our savings to keep going. People have been really brilliant doing fundraising and trying to get grants. The group had saved money and that is wheat we have been using to keep the group running, but we cannot go any further because we cannot get any more money,” she said.

Speaking last week Ms mclaughlin said that the playgroup members and supporters had put plans in place to set up an afterschool club, and appealed for help so that the club could get up and running so that it could subsidise the playgroup’s activities.Having already taken pay cuts to try and make what money they had go a little further, Ms McLaughlin said every step possible as being taken to try and keep people in a job.

Ms McLaughlin went on to appeal for political representatives to get involved and help save the playgroup.