Vodafone Ireland Supports our Leadership Intercultural Exchange Programme.
Vodafone Ireland Foundation is kindly and generously supporting Alan Kerins Projects and our work in Ireland and Zambia. The Foundation has donated a total of €78,000 this year. This will enable a roll out of a leadership intercultural exchange programme to be run between Irish and Zambian youth. Vodafone Foundation Ireland is funding the development of an Accommodation and Training facility in Kaoma, Zambia and the rollout of the programme. The Leadership Programme has been developed by Foróige and the UNESCO Chair in Child and Youth and Civic Engagement at NUIG.
In Ireland the formal education system focuses on academic achievement; with little attention paid to civic responsibility. In 2009 the first accredited youth leadership training programme for young people in Ireland was successfully piloted in two schools in Galway (Spiddal and Athenry). The leadership programme aims to enable young people to develop the skills, inspiration, vision, confidence, and action plans to be an effective leader and to empower young people to make a positive difference to society through the practice of effective leadership. Community based project work is a core element of the new leadership for life programme. In 2010 Alan Kerins Projects joined Foróige to devise a developmental educational aspect to the Community Action module. This will provide an opportunity for young people engaged in the programme to apply their leadership to global issues and work with youth from Zambia to address issues facing young people. This opportunity will have an immediate and long term impact on youth and communities in both countries.
The aim is to combine youth leadership and developmental education to provide a real opportunity for young people to engage in leadership training and active civic engagement so that they can consciously and actively contribute to their own development and to the development of society.
Objectives
- Build a training and accommodation facility in Kaoma to house Irish youth exchange participants as well as provide a source of income generation for the community.
- To facilitate participants through group work to develop an awareness of their own leadership style, identify goals and vision for the future, develop their communication and life skills, enhance critical thinking and problem solving abilities and reflect on their learning.
- Enable participants to enhance their knowledge of community needs, develop project planning, development and evaluation skills, collaborate within team projects, improve their communication skills and explore global issues.
- Enable participants to put into practice their learning by actively engaging in a community project that will include their own local community and Kaoma in Zambia.
- All students will receive a certificate of participation and those who successfully meet the required standards will receive a Foundation Certificate in Youth and Community Action from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
- To provide an opportunity for real life engagement between Irish and Zambian youth which will enrich both groups in terms of cultural awareness, communication and team work.
- Young people who participate in the Albert Schweitzer Leadership for Life Programme that engage in the AKP based civic engagement module will engage with Zambian youth to complete their community action project.
Fundraising
Raises money for the sustainable development of Kaoma, Zambia
This year, the first and pilot group to travel from Ireland to Zambia under this programme is a school group from Spiddal. This group of 18 young people and 6 adult leaders have been working together on an orientation programme for the past year. The programme has helped young people develop leadership skills and a deeper understanding of active citizenship and civic engagement in Galway, as well as an enhanced sense of global issues in Zambia. The Alan Kerins Projects Community Development Worker in Kaoma, Michelle Hennessy, a former Foróige worker, is developing the programme in Zambia, and preparing to welcome the Spiddal group. A group of young Zambians, who are working on parallel leadership issues with Michelle and their leaders, will participate in the leadership programme and work with the Irish young people.
Here is Michelle with one of the orphans in the Cheshire Home, Kaoma, which will be visited by the Irish group.
The Spiddal group have been involved in extensive fundraising for their trip, as well as working hard on their leadership training. The events organised include Table Quizzes, and the highlight was a fashion show held on March 25th with the models including Ronan Scully of Operation Transformation. The group will cover all their own costs, and will be able to donate funds to the Cheshire Home in Kaoma which takes care of over 140 orphans; boys and girls aged 6 months to 18 years.
The funds generated by the schools participating in this programme will form the basis of a scholarship fund for orphans. This fund will enable girls and boys to attend secondary school in Western Province.
