| | |  | LATEST SCHOOLS NEWS | Africa trip awaits school group |  | | | Students and teachers from half a dozen schools who are working with Self Help Africa's development education programme travelled to Uganda on a field visit to the country over the Easter holiday break.
During the trip the students and teachers participated in workshops, learning visits and other events, and got the chance to meet with counterparts in Ugandan education.
Self Help Africa has been organising Easter schools visits to Africa for the past decade, and in that time has brought more than 200 students and teachers on field visits to its programme countries.
Participating schools undertake a wide range of classroom based workshops and activities with Self Help Africa during the school year, and also undertake fundraising events to cover the costs of their participation in the Africa visit.
Programme co-ordinator Patsy Toland said that the field trips provide young people with an opportunity to engage, discuss, and understand the issues affecting people in the developing world. |
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| Young Scientist success | | 2010 BT Young Scientist Richard O'Shea will travel with Self Help Africa this Summer, on an As the winner of this prize he receives a travel bursary from Irish Aid, to enable him to travel with his teacher to Africa and explore the issues surrounding his award-winning project - a fuel efficient bio-mass cooking stove for use in the |  | Developing World.
Irish Aid funded field trip made possible by his success in the national science fair.
18 year old Richard won the top national award at the January expo, and also received the Irish Aid/Self Help Africa 'Science for Development Award' at the event. |
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| School fund-raising | Why not keep Self Help Africa in mind if you're planning some fund-raising, this year.
School bazaars, school concerts, and non-uniform days are all popular fund-raising activities - and we would be delighted for your support. To find out more why not drop a line to us here . |
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|  | Solar panels presented | Solar panels which are designed to general LED lighting were presented to a local community group during the recent schools visit to Kenya.
The representatives of MacEgan College in Macroom received the panels from locally based alternative energy company Solaris Energy Systems, and donated them to a Kenyan group as part of a pilot programme that the firm is starting in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
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|  | School linkages | Teachers from two Irish schools - St. Wolstan's in Celbridge, Co. Kildare, and from MacEgan College in Macroom, Co. Cork, travelled with Self Help Africa to Ethiopia to forge local links for their schools, with schools in Africa.
The initiative is part of the Irish Aid sponsored 'Worldwise' scheme, and facilitates Irish schools to forge linkages with schools in the developing world. The Irish teachers met with counterparts from two schools that have been built by Self Help Africa in Ethiopia. |
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| MDG book two | Self Help Africa is currently working in partnership with transition year students and teachers at St. Wolstan's College, Celbridge, on the production of the second in a planned series of books on the Millennium Development Goals.
Book II, on the subject of Universal Primary Education will include a collection of student writing, together with written submissions from a range of contributors giving their thoughts on the value of education.
The book is the second in a planned series of eight books - each providing students with an opportunity to express their thoughts on the issues being addressed by the Millennium Development Goals. The series, entitled 'Twenty Fifteen', takes its names from the year set by the United Nations for the world community to deliver on the objectives set for the MDG goals. |
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| Young Scientists Expo |  |
Three students from Muckross Park College in Dublin were winners of the Irish Aid-Self Help Africa 'Science for Development Award', at this year's BT Young Scientists Exhibition.
Transition Year girls Ellen Flanagan, Molly Van Der Lee and Ciara McKay became the fourth winners of the prestigious annual award for a project which examined the work and practices of traditional birth attendants in rural Kenya.
The students based their report and findings on a survey which they conducted with 100 traditional home birth midwives in Kenya. |
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| Interact on-line | | Self Help Africa has started to develop online opportunities for our students to network socially with each other across the internet. If you can help, we'd love to hear from you. |  | Self Help Africa has a Facebook page. Check it out here |
|  | YouTube channel is on the way. Check out Sarah's, or Dervilla's video, from their trip to Ethiopia. |
|  | If you can help us with our myspace page, get in touch. |
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| School water tank commissioned during field visit | | | | Students and teachers who travelled on Self Help Africa's annual schools trip to Africa were on hand for the official switch on of a new water storage system at a school in the Kamara project area.
The tank, with a capacity to hold 10,000 litres of water was constructed at Kyanda Primary School, and was built in part with funding support provided by the schools taking part in the 2009 schools visit.
According to Kenyan country director Duncan Ochieng Onduu the school had a serious problem with accessing clean drinking water, but that a borehole and plastic storage tank had since been installed. Kyanda Primary School has a population of more than 630 children - most of whom come from squatter families who have been displaced to the Kamara area as a result of land disputes and past tribal conflict. | |
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|  | Memorable school trip to Kenya | | Students and teachers from eight schools took part in a memorable field visit with Self Help Africa to Kenya over the Easter holiday break. Participants included MacEgan College, Macroom, Colaiste Chriost Ri and Clonakilty, Co Cork, from Clonkeen College and Muckross College in Dublin, and from Lucan Community College. A delegation representing the European School in Brussels, and from a number of teachers from a primary school in Blarney also travelled. | |
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|  | Africa Alive in the classroom | | Bring Africa alive in the classroom - understand the issues, discover the rich and diverse cultures, and become a part of the solution to the challenges facing the world's second largest continent. 'Africa Alive' is Self Help Africa's innovative Development Education programme - offering teachers and students the change to engage in a very real way with the continent and its people. |
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| Classroom resources | As part of the Diseases of Poverty Consortium Self Help Africa has been working on a library of educational and information resources that can be used to support Development Education activities in the classroom.
Targeted specifically at Transition Years, the resources include information, worksheets and other support materials that are available for you to use. Why not follow the link below and find out more: | |
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| | Impressions of Africa | | Check out here one students impressions of their visit with Self Help Africa to Ethiopia, last year. |
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| 'Poverty' the subject of school book |  | Students from two post-primary schools have collaborated with Self Help Africa on the production of a book on the subject of the first Millenium Goal - the eradication of hunger and poverty.
The Transition Year teenagers from Colaiste Bhride, Carnew, and from St Peter's College, Dunboyne, have been working on the project since last Autumn, and will have their publication on the 1st Millennium Development Goal (MDG) launched in Dublin, in May. |
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| Award win for MDG book authors | A collaboration between two Irish secondary schools and Self Help Africa resulted in a prestigious national award being awarded to the participating students, at an event in Dublin.
Transition Year students of Colaiste Bhride in Carnew and of St. Peter's College, Dunboyne, were awarded the top national award, at the 2009 Young Social Innovators event, at the RDS in Dublin. The students collected two awards and cash prizes totalling 3,000 euro when they were selected from amongst over 300 finalists at the prestigious national competition.
The winners had collaborated with Self Help Africa on the production of a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) book on eradicating hunger and poverty (see panel to right). |
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| Award winner studying 'International Development' | The winner of last year's Science for Developmnt award at the Young Scientists Exhibition Tara McGrath reckons that she might make a career out of assisting the developing world. The 19 year old Kilkenny teenager, who won the Irish Aid/Self Help award in 2008, has gone on to study for a B. Sc. in International Development & Food Policy at University College Cork. After winning last year's award Tara travelled to Ethiopia with Self Help, where she field tested the fuel-efficient cooking stove she had invented.
This trip was the subject of a television documentary that subsequently screened on RTE.
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| Students lobby UN on Millennium Goals | A dozen students, representing six Irish secondary schools, travelled to Brussels to lobby the UN, and highlight the need for governments and world development organisations to fulfil the promises made at the unveiling of the 'Millennium Development Goals' eight years ago.
The visit was part of an initiative started last year by three Irish NGOs working in development education - Self Help Africa, Concern and 80:20, to lobby for further action to meet MDG targets.
The students, who were accompanied by Self Help's Patsy Toland, carried a petition signed by 5,000 Irish schoolgoers. They also met with Irish MEP's Prionsias DeRossa and Mairead McGuinness. |
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|  | Patsy Toland is our development education programme co-ordinator. Having worked in teaching, and as a school principal for more than 20 years, he has been with Self Help for more than six years. Patsy is available to facilitate workshops and give school presentations at schools across the country. |
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| Classroom resources | | Self Help Africa has a wide variety of resources, including textbooks and worksheets available for use in the classroom. Books and other materials are available in English and Irish language versions. (These books were published by Self Help Development International). | | | | | | |
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| | | | Self Help Africa - UK
Second Floor, Westgate House,Dickens Court,
Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QU
Tel. +44 (0) 1743 277170 |
| Self Help Africa - Ireland
Annefield House,Dublin Road,
Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland
Tel. +353 (0) 578694034 |
| Self Help Africa Inc.
304 Park Avenue South, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10010, USA
Tel. +1 917 289 0670 |
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| | Self Help Africa is an international charity registered in Ireland and the United Kingdom Registered charity number: 6663 (Ireland), and 298830 (UK)
Self Help Africa is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organisation in the United States. | | | | | | Powered by go2web
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