Kieran Tansey works in financial services, but for the past 15 years much of his time outside work has been devoted to getting practical help to people who need it. He is a founder, board member and financial director of Irish charity Project ESPWA.
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The charity’s original name was Haiti Orphanage Project Espwa, with the initials spelling HOPE. Espoir is the French word for hope, while ESPWA is the Haitian Creole spelling. As the organisation expanded beyond Haiti, it shortened its name to Project ESPWA.
The charity began with a trip to Haiti in April 2010, three months after the devastating earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced around 1.5 million. Tansey was among approximately 300 volunteers who travelled with the Haven Partnership to a remote area in the northwest of the country. Over the course of a week, they built around 80 houses, a community centre and a playground.
Although his professional background was in finance, Tansey was no stranger to manual work, having worked on building sites during his later years at secondary school. Nor did the volunteers need to arrive with particular construction skills.
“In fairness, you didn’t have to be skilled in any way. A job would be found for you very quickly,” he says.
The group returned in April 2011, by which time the first development had grown to approximately 200 houses, with 1,200 people living there and gardens established around their homes. A second development followed a similar pattern. The volunteers stayed in six-person tents, working alongside hundreds of local Haitians in extraordinary heat. On one occasion, the doctors took the Irish volunteers off site when the temperature reached 47 degrees Celsius.
It was in those tents that the idea for Project ESPWA took shape. Five of the volunteers became close friends and began discussing how they might continue helping Haiti in a more focused way. They were particularly concerned about children and adults with special needs, who could be hidden away or abandoned because their families had no means of caring for them.
“We said we wanted to continue and do something else and do something different in Haiti. In Haiti in particular, if you’ve got kids or adults with special needs, quite often they’re hidden away in the background. Often, they’re abandoned at the steps of a hospital or a clinic.”
The group also wanted to create a charity with a different cost structure. Having seen the scale of a major building operation, they believed they could achieve more by keeping overheads low and managing projects directly. Project ESPWA was founded in 2011 on the principle that everyone involved would be a volunteer.
“Our constitution states that nobody can earn a salary ever.” Tansey says.
A different kind of hope
The charity’s original name was Haiti Orphanage Project Espoir, with the initials spelling HOPE. Espoir derives from the French word for hope, while ESPWA is the Haitian Creole spelling. As the organisation expanded beyond Haiti, it shortened its name to Project ESPWA.
Its first independent trip took place in August 2011 to Île-à-Vache, an island off Haiti’s southwest coast. The volunteers worked with an orphanage supporting children and adults with special needs, returning approximately 12 times between 2011 and 2015.
Over those years, they developed a physiotherapy facility equipped to Irish standards, providing equipment for more than 40 children and adults and enabling therapists to work with them. They also built wheelchair ramps and improved access to the school across the road. Previously, some residents had to be carried on stretchers; with the new access and wheelchairs provided by the charity, they could travel to school independently.
In 2015, ESPWA began working with Gena Heraty, the Westport woman who has spent more than three decades caring for vulnerable children in Haiti. Heraty had travelled there in 1993 intending to stay for a year and remained, establishing a pioneering special-needs programme.
“She’s just one of these people that gets things done. She’s amazing,” Tansey says.
The volunteers began with a request for a couple of footpaths at Heraty’s facility in the mountains above Port-au-Prince. The work expanded considerably, with so much concrete mixed and poured by hand that the volunteers christened the main path “the runway at Knock”.
ESPWA continued making two or three trips a year until 2019, when Haiti’s deteriorating security situation made travel too dangerous. The support, however, did not stop. Since 2016, the charity has sent more than 40 forty-foot containers of aid to Heraty and the communities she supports.
Heraty’s name became familiar to many Irish people in August 2025 when she, a three-year-old boy in her care, and six colleagues were kidnapped by a gang. They were held for 26 days before being released unharmed. Tansey describes it as a dreadful experience, but her commitment to Haiti has continued.
There is also a lighter side to her story. A devoted Mayo supporter, Heraty regularly dresses the children in Mayo colours and sends videos home. A recent visit to Ireland for her sister’s birthday coincided with the All-Ireland final, allowing her to attend the match where Mayo won after a dearth of 75 years. Tansey says she was ecstatic to have been there.
Giving useful things a second life
Project ESPWA now supports projects in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kenya, Uganda and Ukraine, as well as having sent aid following the wildfires in Maui. Its work has evolved into a distinctive combination of practical aid and circular economy logistics.
The charity collects equipment and supplies that are no longer needed in Ireland but remain in good condition. These include school furniture, beds, mattresses, sheets, towels, blankets, clothing, medical equipment and bicycles. The supplies are matched to requests from partner organisations overseas.
“Everything that we send is usually donated. We buy very little unless it’s specific medicines that we’ve been requested to send, and they would be sent under separate supervision,” Tansey explains.
One of the most sought-after items is adult nappies. Unopened, sealed boxes returned to suppliers can be unsuitable for resale or redistribution through their original channels, but they are still perfectly usable. ESPWA has developed relationships with medical suppliers, the HSE, Celtic Linen and other organisations to ensure such items can be put to use rather than discarded.
The charity also works with FoodCloud to move food that might otherwise go to waste because of its remaining shelf life. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tansey says ESPWA has sent nearly 900 tonnes of food, equivalent to approximately two million meals.
“We’re very focused on the circular economy and trying to ensure that items that can have a second life or another alternative life are not basically dumped.”
The containers themselves are part of that approach. ESPWA buys second-hand containers certified as seaworthy and donates them along with their contents. Once emptied, they can be converted into schoolrooms, pharmacies or other useful spaces.
In Kenya and Uganda, the charity has also been involved in drilling and bringing water wells into operation, providing clean water to communities where families may otherwise have to walk several miles to collect water that would not be considered safe by Irish standards. A group of 19 volunteers completed a disability centre in Kenya in February this year.
The people behind the containers
ESPWA’s main base is in Dripsey, County Cork, where chairman John O’Connell has provided warehouse space behind his premises. It is there that donated goods are collected, sorted, packed and prepared for shipment.
The charity has a small board and a sizeable network of volunteers and ambassadors. Some are retired men who repair donated bicycles, ensuring they are in good condition before they are sent overseas. Others sort clothing, linen and household supplies, checking that everything is clean and suitable for use.
“Our rule of thumb with clothes is: would you wear it yourself, or would you put it on one of your kids? And if the answer to that is yes, well, that’s what we send.”
A container destined for Haiti or Africa may include 40 or 50 bicycles, which can make an enormous difference to people and are seen in the same light as getting a car. Other volunteers bring construction, medical, logistics or administrative skills. Some concentrate on particular countries or projects, while others help wherever they are needed.
Tansey says the charity has never had to mount a formal volunteer recruitment campaign. People generally come through word of mouth, often having previously worked with Haven, the Niall Mellon Partnership or other charitable organisations. New volunteers are invited to attend a container-loading day to see the operation for themselves.
For those travelling overseas, the trips are self-financing. Volunteers generally raise around €3,000, with approximately €2,000 covering flights, accommodation and transfers, and the remaining €1,000 contributing to materials needed on site.
“If they’re buying cement or blocks or whatever out there, everybody that’s gone out would have raised money and funds to go towards that.”
The charity is also adding to its board through Boardmatch, which connects organisations with people willing to contribute professional expertise. Tansey believes the network of contacts built over the years, together with social media and Ireland’s relatively small size, has been central to ESPWA’s ability to respond to requests.
“Ireland is a small country. You’re about two steps away from knowing everybody that you really need to know.”
Project ESPWA’s work is built on that combination of relationships, practical skills and a willingness to give time. A school desk that is no longer needed in Ireland can become part of a classroom in Kenya. A bicycle can provide transport to someone. A container can become a pharmacy, while equipment that might otherwise be discarded can help a child attend school or receive physiotherapy.
For Tansey and his fellow volunteers, the principle remains the same as it was when five friends first discussed setting up a charity in a tent in Haiti: identify what is needed, find people who can help and make sure the support reaches its destination.
More information about Project ESPWA, including volunteering and donations, is available at projectespwa.ie.
Fackbook : Project Espwa
Instagram : project_espwa
Email : info@projectespwa.ie
