Students win gold at Young Social Innovators awards for Mica crisis project

'A child can’t kick a ball around their house fearing it could collapse on them'

Tue, 12 Jul, 2022 - 02:00

Helen O’Callaghan

“It’s like a virus. Everybody knows somebody affected by it,” says Eve Callaghan, who has just completed transition year at Loreto Secondary School, Letterkenny, and who is co-captain on the ground-breaking No Place Like Home project.

The project, which aims to raise awareness of the Mica crisis and to campaign for redress on behalf of those affected by it, won gold at this year’s Young Social Innovators (YSI) Ireland Awards.

“We did a school-wide survey and almost 300 students and staff in our school community of almost 1,000 are affected,” says Eve.

The 25-strong team of socially-conscious students wanted to bring a youth voice and perspective to an issue that has dominated headlines and brought protests to the capital’s streets. “We felt enough light wasn’t being shed on the effect of the Mica crisis on young people, particularly on their mental health.”

Mica in blocks “causes a consistency like porridge where they just crumble after heavy rain”, Eve says. “The effects are so visible around Donegal. A child can’t kick a ball around their house fearing it could collapse on them.”

One student, interviewed for the project by co-captain Jennifer Chudley, recalled discovering last summer that her home was affected: ‘This news completely crushed my family. Every memory of my childhood took place in that home and will soon be simply gone.’

Asked if she considered school a safer place than her home, she said: ‘Unfortunately, under my current circumstances it is. School shouldn’t be someone's main safe space, home should be. [But] when I am at home, there are so many other things on my mind, for example how long we have left in our home.’

The team lobbied political representatives in Ireland and endeavoured to bring their campaign message to the attention of the Irish President and the US President and Vice President. They organised a Mica student stance within their school and participated in several major Mica protests. They gained support from local businesses for a Christmas awareness-raising fundraiser, conducted a Zoom lesson with a Pennsylvanian school and sent information resources to schools in Europe and Australia.

They’re currently working on a ‘Student Life with Mica’ documentary and hope to bring their campaign to the European Parliament. With their YSI prize bursary of €2,000, they want to develop the campaign and increase their impact.

Students also picked up the award for Best Social Media Campaign.

“The project made me aware that the person sitting beside me in class might have so much on their mind because they’re going through so much at home,” says Eve.

Young Social Innovators Awards:

This year, 6,123 Irish teens collaborated on 423 social innovation projects nationwide.

Projects — designed to create a more equal, fair and sustainable world — focused on issues including health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, the environment and sustainability.

The silver award went to six-strong team from Cork-based Terence MacSwiney Community College for their Food Fund project, which aims to reduce food waste/address food poverty through establishing an entrepreneurial initiative to redistribute unused meals to those in need.

View the YSI 2022 awards ceremony below.