Schools take part in Rotary Club’s peace advocacy project

AS part of the Rotary Peace Advocacy Project, six follow-up presentations were given by participating schools in Mallow College for Further Education last Friday.

The students involved actively contributed to a Two day Peace Advocacy Training Course in November 2017. This peace advocacy/ conflict resolution programme seeks to assist young people as they tackle new challenges of modern life, including interacting with the ever-present social media platforms.

For example, 73% of young people who have been bullied by email or text said that they know their tormentors. Left unchallenged, such negativity can lead to poor self- image, or more seriously, to self-harm. The intent was that the newly trained Peace Advocates would then initiate their own projects and put the skills they had developed on the course into practice.

Each school made a short presentation on their chosen project. The presentations included Power Point and other appropriate communication medium of their choice. In addition there was a poster display prior to the presentations.

The topics addressed in the presentations ranged from organising discussion groups to improving school environments, tackling homophobic language in school, setting up workshops to help other students deal with cyber-bullying or bringing student groups together to sort out differences.

Mr David Stanton of State for Equality, Immigration and Integration was guest speaker.

To acknowledge all their efforts, each school received a certificate of participation at the seminar and the two best presentations were awarded a ‘ Team Building Voucher’ for Ballyhass Lakes Activity Centre at the conclusion of the event at 1.30pm. District Governor Garth Arnold and Assistant Governor Conny Ovesen, Rotary Ireland, adjudicated the projects.

Mallow Rotary Club would like to extend its sincere appreciation to Mallow College for Further Education for hosting and facilitating the delivery of the Peace Advocacy Project.