Castleknock school receives award

4th and 5th class pupils of Castleknock N.S. were honoured for their humanitarian project “Powerful Poverty” at a special awards ceremony in Farmleigh House recently.

The Dublin 15 school was one of only ten schools to receive awards out of a total entry of 450 schools. In fact, out of 1500 projects submitted by pupils in 3rd through 6th classes, Castleknock NS finished in the top five in the junior category awards.

This was the third year that Irish Aid has run the Our World Global Schools’ Awards programme for all primary schools in both the north and south of Ireland. The overall purpose of the programme is to raise awareness among Irish students of the lives of children of a similar age in the developing world. By taking part in this programme, children can learn how Ireland works with these countries not as providers of charity but as partners for development.

Each competing school had to submit a project to the judging panel and the shortlist was announced at the end of January. The overall winners were the only other Dublin school nominated, Clonburris NS in Clondalkin.

Project co-ordinator Amy Ruth O’Connell explained exactly what “Powerful poverty” was about. “We gave the children no information at the start,” she recounted. “Instead we handed out questionnaires to determine what their ideas of poverty were. A lot of the responses were the normal stereotypes of poverty in Africa which, to be fair, are shared by a lot of the adult population too.

“Then we looked to our own community and did a lot of research on poverty in Ireland. We compared poverty here to that in other countries, comparing the doctor / patient ratios both here and in Africa for example and we unearthed a lot of statistical information to bolster our findings.”

As part of the award, the children were invited to Farmleigh House to take part in the awards ceremony. “It was a fantastic day out for everybody,” said Ms. O’Connell. “The ceremony was hosted by popular RTE Den TV presenter, Rob Ross and the awards themselves – which are a beautiful two piece depiction of a globe sitting in a hand – were presented by the Minister of State for Overseas Development, Michael Kitt T.D.

“They showed clips of the front covers of all the shortlisted projects and the ceremony came to a close with music from Congolese guitarist and singer Niwel Tsumbu. Some of the children told me it was the best day of their lives”.

Ms. O’Connell was at pains to point out that the project was not a done and dusted thing. “This is very much an ongoing project and we will continue to promote awareness of the effects of poverty both at home and abroad,” she said. “The children have been filling in their school colleagues on the details of the project and of course the award has generated a lot of interest. We were even interviewed for a future DVD by Den TV”.

“I am delighted with the level of school participation in the Irish Aid-Our World Global Schools' Award this year,” said Michael Kitt. “It is heartening to see the level of interest young people have in learning about, and from, the lives of children like themselves in the developing world. I hope that the pupils and teachers participation in the Irish Aid-Our World Global Schools’ Awards programme will encourage a life long interest in development issues,” he said.

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