Cork schools event inspires future social innovators

SAVING a day care centre for the elderly and raising awareness about suicide are among hundreds of projects entered for a schools competition inspiring the country’s future social leaders.

The latest regional showcase of entrants in the Young Social Innovators (YSI) began yesterday at Cork City Hall and continues today, with more than 100 projects from almost 60 schools being demonstrated. Through short dramatisations, students aged 15 to 18 are highlighting their efforts to improve quality of life for their peers, and people living in their communities, nationally and around the globe.

The Speak Out event in Cork featured the first YSI project focused on the practice of honour killing, under which women in some Islamic communities are killed for activities considered morally unacceptable. Students from Gaelcholáiste Chéitinn in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, read from a book by a young Palestinian woman who survived an attempted burning by her brother-in-law for having sex before marriage.

Following an outline of the practice and countries where it has happened, 10 students donned masks with the faces of honour killing victims and the narrator said: “Look at them closely and remember their faces”.

The girls from Coláiste na Toirbhirte in Bandon, Co Cork, staged a moving mini-drama depicting the potentially fatal consequences of girls not receiving the vaccine for cervical cancer.

One of four teams from St Colman’s College in Midleton, Co Cork, highlighted the importance of a defibrillator. Their project was prompted by the death of a fellow student’s relative from sudden adult death syndrome (SADS), which is responsible for many of the dozens of deaths from cardiac arrest among under-40s.

Students from Cashel Community School in Tipperary demonstrated the benefit of their fundraising efforts to keep a local day care centre open, through a short play depicting fictional 75-year-old widower Tom, who is no longer isolated and lonely because of the centre’s services. The students hope to raise money through publication of a book to help keep the under-threat centre running a few days a week and provide an outlet for Tom and its other users.

Opening this week’s event, YSI chairperson Sr Stanislaus Kennedy called on all participants to continue their involvement in social activism, having already shown a deep understanding and appreciation of the issues facing society and presenting imaginative approaches to solving them. Out of 6,000 students taking part in the programme nationally, 60 projects will be shortlisted for the ninth YSI showcase at Croke Park in Dublin on May 5 where national award winners will be chosen.

Other projects being showcased this week by schools from Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford include knife crime, suicide, sexual health, body image, video games, drink driving, underage drinking and coping with exam stress.