Presentation girls raise over €500 for Friends of Calcutta
FOUR classes in Presentation Primary School, Ballymakenny Road, recently took part in Challenge to Change, and raised €522.00 for a charity cause.
Challenge to Change is a development education project aimed at young people attending the Presentation Sisters primary and post-primary schools in Ireland.
The initiative seeks to raise awareness and understanding of development issues and global inequality through the exploration and engagement in issues surrounding as (in)justice, human rights, Fairtrade, racism, exploitation, etc.
“We decided to do our project on Fairtrade,” explained class teacher Ms Fiona Leonard.
“The title of our project was ‘Empowering People Through Fairtrade’. Each class researched a different Fairtrade product (bananas, tea, chocolate and cotton). The pupils looked at the importance of supporting Fairtrade to ensure the producer receivers good working conditions and fair prices.
As part of the project the children organised a fundraiser. They chose a charity called ‘Friends of Calcutta’ which is a wonderful charity.
Friends of Calcutta has been feeding and educating hundreds of children in the slums of Calcutta for almost 25 years.
Miriam Doran who lives in Stamullen visited Calcutta for the fourth time in January.
She visited the schools and saw the projects which the charity funds.
One such programme is a two-year tailoring programme for young teenage girls who have dropped out of school.
In order to give them a skill and make them self-sufficient they can do a tailoring programme.
They make the uniforms for the school children as part of their training.
At the end of the two years each girl receives a Singer sewing machine. She is now able to generate an income for herself.
“We chose to support this charity this year because of the school setting,” continues Ms Leonard.
“This money will goes towards educating children from one of the poorest parts of the world. The pupils liked the idea of helping the young girls learn the skill of sewing so that they can make their own money.”
Last month a number of pupils from each of the four classes presented their project to the rest of the school.
In the afternoon they held a bun sale and a raffle with many prizes donated by Aura, Funtasia and Scholastic Books.
They raised €522 which was presented to Miriam Doran of Friends of Calcutta.
Miriam spoke to all the pupils to thank them for their huge amount of money raised.
She spoke about the difference it will make in the lives of children very far away.
She presented the children involved in the project with bracelets made by children in Calcutta which they were thrilled to receive.