Current Events
Young Social Innovators 2008
Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone, winners of the Making Our World One World award at the Young Social Innovators, May 2008.
by Emma Downey, Transition Year Student from Scoil Dara, Kilcock.
Young Social Innovators (YSI) invites young people between the ages of 15 and 18 to work together to make radical, innovative suggestions and actions for change that can make a real difference to people's lives, including their own.
To date, over 20,000 young people have taken up the YSI challenge. These young social innovators have helped create change in how we live, think and care for others in society - now and in the future.
YSI is an opportunity for young people and their communities to get involved in something that can potentially change the way society thinks about certain issues. It encourages community and voluntary work. Everyone has a part to play in meeting the YSI vision to fire young people's passion to change the world for good.
YSI is anything young people feel strongly about. Its issues they feel should be tackled such as the environment, human rights, integration, poverty, global issues, community concerns and everyone's physical and mental well-being. Participants direct their own project, take their own initiative and produce their own results.
The mission of young social innovators is to fire young people’s passion to change the world for good. YSI was first set up in 2001 by Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy (Sr Stan) who is now the Chairperson and Rachel Collier CEO.
YSI came alive - to support and use the resources, talents, skills and above all the idealism of young people, in particular around social issues of concern to them, in order to create a better society. YSI was made nationwide in 2005 and had a full time staff.
Trócaire is a gold sponsor of the young social innovators. The winner of the Making Our World One World award went to Our Lady’s Bower Athlone Co. Westmeath. There winning project was entitled” Fair Play” which was presented by Lorna Gold from Trocaire.
The annual showcase of the YSI runs for 2 days in the RDS .This year it was on the 7th and 8th of May with up to 5,000 young people attending The overall winner of YSI 2008 is the team from Colaiste Mhuire Ennis Co. Clare. Their winning project was entitled “Stomp Out Bullying”.
March 2008 – The Pamoja Lenten Visitors
Marysent Mugambi is presented with a
St Bridget's cross
from
a student of
St Marys Macroom.
The Trócaire Development Education team are currently travelling throughout the country to our Pamoja schools with our visitors from Kenya.
The Pamoja schools comprise 20 schools from all over Ireland that have been researching, raising awareness and taking action on Kenya and climate change during the course of their academic year. They spent much of the first term researching; from there they endeavoured to raise awareness and take action. They achieved this through a number of channels. The schools made presentations to their local primary schools; presented at masses; and raised awareness in their communities through a wide range of activities.
The Pamoja projects in the schools around the country link very well with Trócaire's current Lenten campaign which focuses on helping people that Trócaire work with to cope with the effects of climate change, so that they can adapt to the challenging circumstances that prevail.
Steven Warweru has captured the imagination of the young people he has connected with in Northern Ireland and in Leinster, while Marysent Mugambi is still making her way around schools in Munster and is inspiring all those she meets with her powerful message on how Trócaire’s partners work on the ground in Kenya. These visits are a highlight in the Pamoja calendar and we in Trócaire are privileged to have people of the calibre of Marysent and Steven come to visit the schools we work with.
If you would like to learn more about Pamoja, or if your school would like to apply to become a Pamoja school, please e-mail John Smith at: jsmith@trocaire.ie
Pamoja Training Day Tuesday February 6th, 2007
The venue was the Imperial hotel in Cork. The event was the 2007 Pamoja Training Day. 12 of our Pamoja schools were represented at the event. 4 students came from each school to represent their Pamoja groups. These are young people who are engaging in Trócaire’s 2007 Lenten campaign on Gender Equality. They have been exploring the theme of Gender through case studies from Trócaire’s partners in Malawi. This work has been ongoing in the schools since they received Gender packs, and were visited by a Trócaire Education Officer back in November.
Yesterday’s training day provided the students with an opportunity to participate in workshops on the themes of Media and the Web, Malawi, primary school workshops, and presentation skills. In addition to this there were a number of presentations throughout the day. These presentations included: Sorcha Fennell (Programme Leader for livelihoods and Environment) presenting on her experiences living in Malawi; Lara Kelly (Campiagns Officer) presenting on this years Gender Equality Lenten campaign; Alan Whelan (Information Officer) presenting Trócaire’s new and exciting initiative around Social Networking; Peadar King (Documentary producer) introducing the new series of ‘What in the World’, the first episode of which will be aired on February 22nd at 10:45 on RTE.
One of the most exciting sections of the day was when the students themselves presented what it is they will be doing to raise awareness and take action in their own schools and beyond for their Pamoja projects. Every year we find that the students inspire us with their enthusiasm, and innovation. This year was no exception. Examples of some of the ways in which the students will bring their message to their schools and beyond are: Displays in their schools; making presentations in their schools; facilitating workshops in their schools and in local primary schools; writing letters to local and national newspapers; appearing on local television; creating a website; putting together a memory book and presenting it to the person who will be visiting from Malawi during Lent.
The students were also reminded that their application forms for this years summer school need to be in by February 16th. With the energy that the students showed at yesterday’s event, the Summer School is shaping up to be another powerful gathering of young people who have a shared interest in Human Rights.
Review of Pamoja Human Rights Summer School 2006
This years summer school ran from August 13th to August 15th. 23 students descended on Maynooth from all over the country, where they spent 3 days exploring human rights issues through the overarching theme of freedom of expression. The summer school was a fantastic event. The students arrived on Sunday the 13th and once they had settled in, they launched straight into workshops ranging from the role of international law to campaigning.
This year Trócaire was again privileged to have inspiring guest speakers. Charm Tong is a human rights activist from Burma. Charm Tong is 22 years old, and already has had a huge impact in the world of international diplomacy. She recently won a Reebok human rights award for her work in exposing human rights abuses inflicted by the Burmise military junta. She has tirelessly worked on raising awareness around the injustices existing within Burma and in the past year alone George Bush and Jack Straw are among those honoured to have met with her.
Charm Tong delivered a powerful message to the young people present at the summer camp and it is safe to say that the students participating were immensely moved by the stories that she shared with them. In fact, so enthusiastic were the students, that they made their own short video that will be sent over to the students that Charm Tong works with, who are living in exile on the border with Burma. This video is a message of solidarity for all those young people who have been forced to leave their homes by the military junta.
On Monday evening Prof. Wilhelm Verwoerd addressed the students. Prof. Verwoerd currently co ordinates the ‘Former Combatants Programme’ at the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation based in Co.Wicklow. Holding a doctorate of Philosophy Prof Verwoerd previously was a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He further served as a researcher on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and he has authored, co-authored and edited a number of books and articles.
Prof. Verwoerd brought a unique personal perspective to the subject matter. He is the grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd, the assassinated South African prime minister (1958-1966) who is regarded as the "architect of the apartheid state." Wilhelm turned his back on his grandfather's policies and the racist ideology he had grown up with, and joined the African National Congress, the country's primary anti-apartheid organization. Prof. Verwoerd shared his experiences and very personal self-discovery with the students in his own unique and amiable style. This story combined with Charm Tongs account of her experiences in Burma gave the students a context upon which to explore their own views and experiences around freedom of expression.
The students went on to explore freedom of expression through a number of
sub-themes. The culmination of their work came when they were given the opportunity
to present their views to their peers and to Trócaire staff members and guest
speakers. Roll on summer school 2007!
So what did the students themselves think? In their own words…
' It is a great way to learn about other cultures, other peoples' hardships
and survival, and to meet new people'.
'Fantastic, I learned so much and had fun all the time'.
' It was a brilliant experience. Everyone was so friendly and I made some great new friends'.
'I would hope that next year the Pamoja Summer School will last for about a week'.
'I'd love to do this again and become a permanent campaigner for human rights'.
