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.