Graduates show ‘Spark’ for Enterprise
GRADUATES from DkIT’s Business and Management graduates were regional winners in the SPARK National Social Enterprise Awards 2018.
Gareth Lau, Dayna Brannigan and Jade Kenny were recognised for their work on a unique ‘app’ to help the integration of asylum seekers.
The annual competition gave DkIT students Gareth, Dayna and Jane the opportunity to submit an application based on their app ‘ Túsa Nua’.
The awards application saw the students being awarded overall winners of the regional SPARKS award, followed by receiving the accolade for runners up at the SPARK National Social Enterprise Awards.
Based on a personal passion of the students the app, ‘ Túsa Nua’, was developed as part of a class project for their BB Business and Management degree and seeks to aid asylum seekers with integration into Irish society offering services, such as support and information on local services e.g. English classes, a translation function and a chat platform giving users a direct link to volunteers providing assistance.
On why the app is important for those seeking asylum Jade said: ‘I think the main thing was to make their daily life as normal as possible. Research that we carried out showed asylum seekers suffer a lot with depression and mental health issues as they are living in the one area all the time, for anything up to 10 years.’