Our Future

Newsletter 2010
5th Class, Room 10
Contents: Food, Hunger and
1. Food, Hunger and Poverty by Jake and Poverty
Nathan
Hello we are Jake and Nathan and
3. Water by Christopher G. and Dylan together we are working on the topic of
5. Slums by Niall and Jack food. We have found out some horrible
7. Developing Rights by Stephen and Cian facts about the hardship some people
12. Callum and Lorcan’s photo comparison have gone through over the years. We
16. The Life of a Child Soldier by Chris C.
are trying our best to eradicate extreme
and Patrick
hunger and poverty.
18. The Fight to Ban Child Soldiers Around
the World by Michael and Donald
22. The Recession and Developing World
Charities by Charlie and Reza
23. Ireland and the Developing World by
Yannick
24. The Vox Pop on Charities by Charlie and Y
Yannick

27. Domitille- The Girl on the Trócaire Box

by Roendell
28. Goal Jersey Day by Jamie and Olimpio
29. The Shoe-Box Appeal by Leo and Declan

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 Millennium Development GOAL 1 -To stop
extreme poverty and hunger.
The target is to halve, between 1990 and
2015, the number of people who earn less
than $1 a day.
Good News
 The number of people that are living in
poverty is falling in most parts of the
world.
 In the developing world it has fallen
by 32% since 2004.
 The UN still thinks that it can achieve
this goal by 2015
Bad News
 Still in 2008 1.3 billion people lived on
less than $1 a day.
 This is around 1 in 6 people on the
planet
 It is nowhere near the millennium goal
target.
Because of the recession there are 55-90
million more people living in poverty.
Experts still think that it will fall but not
as quickly as before. It will affect some
countries more than others. We think
that some will make the target and some
won’t.
Trócaire
We don’t think that this should happen.
Everyone should have the right to food.
In our parish we give to the Trócaire box.
This money goes to help developing
countries to help themselves.
2
It gives them seeds, and tools and
training to improve their farms.
Many hunger experts believe that the
best way to reduce hunger is through
education. Educated people are more able
to get out of this situation. We hope that
the money we raised will give a better
future to people in developing countries.
If they can learn to read and write they
have a better chance to earn the money
to buy food themselves.
HOW DOES GOAL HELP?
In our school we did the Goal Jersey Day
and we collected 926 euro. In Ireland, UK
and USA many people buy food in the
supermarket. Often people in Africa grow
their own food. Goal helps people and
villages by giving them the equipment they
need to be able to grow and farm their
own food. This includes tools and access
to water. Goal also teaches people how to
grow crops.
In Ireland we just expect to have food.
When we wrote about children’s rights for
this project food and water were the very
last right. When children were asked in
Ethiopia it was the very first right that
they said. So for 1 in 6 living on less that 1
dollar a day food and water are probably
all they think about.
By giving to Goal and Trócaire we can help
give children in the developing world a
better future. We can help them to make
a better future for themselves.
 SOME PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD
WATER IN THEIR HOME
In Ethiopia some people travel miles to wells
and rivers to get water. It can take up to 3-
4 hours to get there and more to get back.
Could you imagine travelling miles just to get
a glass of water? In Ethiopia, only 22% of
the population have access to safe water. It
is unsafe to drink dirty water because it can
make you very ill. By 2015 the millennium
goals want to reduce by half the population
of people who don't have safe water.
Clean water can make you healthy but dirty
water can make you very ill. 1.6 million people
need access to safe water. If you don’t have
access to safe water and toilets then you can
get diarrhoea and this is the main cause for
88% of deaths for children under five.
Why do they have no water?
 Dams like the Kariba Dam in Africa
are created to make electricity. But
you need to flood areas to make the
lake. Then people can be moved to
other areas with little water.
 Wars- if the water pipes are
bombed then cities can have no
access to clean water. They may
have to collect it from a long
distance away.
 Sometimes the water nearby is
used by animals as well as people.
This can leave germs in the water
which can cause illnesses like
cholera. People boil the water but
that doesn’t always make it safe.
 Sometimes there is not enough
rain and areas have drought.
Sometimes people have to move
into areas that have drought
because of new roads, or farming
or wars.
 Tourism which seems like a good
thing can use up lots of water that
the local people need.
 Growing crops like cocoa can take
water that the local people need
and they may never even get to
taste the chocolate.
 Rich landowners can drain rivers to
irrigate their crops. Local people then
have little water left and the wells
can be up to 20m deep.
3

What can be done?
 If farmers get together in groups then
they can collect water in tanks. They can
share the water between them and only
water where crops are planted instead of
the whole field.
 If people get together in peace then pipes
are not destroyed by bombs
 If people are educated about how to keep
water safe then there is less chance of
them getting diseases. Sometimes water
can be collected in pipes from higher up in
the mountains so that it is safe to drink.
They can use games to teach children
about safe water.
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 If they have the equipment they
can make new wells. They can also
make man-made lakes by channelling
the water from the mountains
nearby.
 If farmers are given a fair price for
their crops by people buying fair
trade then they can afford to build
wells to use for themselves not just
their crops.
 If banks or mini-dams are built in
areas then the water is collected
and wells can be 8m instead of 20m.
. What can we do?
 We can buy fair trade products in
Ireland
 Irish Aid helps these countries to
help themselves and find their own
solutions
 We can give to charities like
Trócaire which have boxes in our
parish.
 We can give to charities like Goal,
we had a goal jersey day in our
school.
 We can be more careful with
water ourselves when we realise
how important it is, switching off
taps and collecting rainwater for
the garden etc.
Hopefully this will make a better future
for people in developing countries and
people in Ireland.
 Slums

Our names are Niall Hogan and Jack

Bowe and we are writing about slums and
how we can change the future of children
in them. Currently one third of the
world’s population live in slums or shanty
towns.

Every person has a basic right to

 a home - not just a roof over their

Information from: head but somewhere they can
www.trócaire.org
identify with and feel safe and
www.oxfam.org/education
www.goal.ie secure in.
 clean water - water which is safe
for drinking, washing and cooking.

We also think that they deserve a safe,

calm, environment to live in.

We are going to talk about two slums in

particular, Zambian slums and Port au
Prince slums.

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 Zambian Slums:
We read a radio interview by PRI’S The World. Jo
Fidgen, from the BBC, was brought on a tour of
Chibolya, a slum often nick-named ‘Baghdad’. It is a
very violent area. Her guide was 13 year old Joseph
Banda.
Daniel Omara once said ‘slums are like a disease in
society’. Most children that live in Chibolya play
with plastic bags for footballs. They mainly eat
goats for dinner. There is a slaughterhouse in the
centre of the slums. There is no proper drainage
and the smell is rotten and disgusting. They usually
pick up bottles and other recyclables to sell to get
money for their families or themselves.
Often men beat their wives and sell anything that
can be sold for money to buy more alcohol. A lot of
people take marijuana. We think that this is
because they are under so much pressure and have
a hard life.
Schools in Chibolya are small and hold up to eighty
or more in the classroom. Children sit on the
ground. There is only one teacher in the classroom.
In Chiobolya you have to pay money to go to the
toilet because they have no proper toilets in their
houses. They sometimes use a bucket and pour it
down the open drains in the streets where children
play.
There is rubbish all over the streets so it is easy to
catch a disease.
6
Port au Prince
Port au Prince is the capital of Haiti and it
is one of the world’s poorest countries.
People are moving from the countryside to
Port au Prince to look for a job. There is
not enough housing for them and very little
space to build. They build shacks on the
edges of cliffs and on top of areas that
usually flood. This puts them in danger
when there are floods, hurricanes or
landslides.
People have to buy water from markets and
the roads are dirt tracks. In Port au Prince
at the moment there is an outbreak of
cholera. This disease can kill and spreads
very quickly. Without clean water and
sanitation it is very difficult for people
living there to avoid it. There have been
3,722 outbreaks of cholera since the
article Goal wrote on the 31st of October
2010. So far 303 people have died from the
disease.
Port au Prince is squashed between the sea
and the hills behind. There are up to 4.5
million people living in Port au Prince and
since the earthquake 200,000 are living in
camps which are even worse than the box
homes they lived in before. When they live
in these areas they are even more
vulnerable to diseases and they need the
help of the developed world even more.
Their future relies on getting help and
money from us.
How we can help
In our parish we get Trócaire boxes. They
help in Brazil by
 helping them to get clean water
 helping people get better employment
 giving them access to land so that they
can grow food
 helping them to have a voice in
government to change their future for
the better
 giving advice on how to improve things.
By giving in the Trócaire box we help to make
their future better.
In our school we held the Goal Jersey Day and
this money is helping people in the slums of
Port au Prince to live better lives.
Information from :
www.trocaire.org
www.goal.ie
www.oxfam.org.uk/education
www.theworld.org/2009/09/23/the-slums-of-Zambia/
Developing Rights
Our names are Stephen and Cian and we
looked at the different rights that
children chose as important in Ethiopia,
Lebanon and South Africa. These are
countries which have received funding in
the past especially Ethiopia which is a
partner country to Irish Aid.
We got this information below from
Oxfam. We then spoke to the Student
Council in our school and came up with a
list of rights that we thought were
important to children in Ireland. We are
going to compare the rights in the
different countries and explain why we
think that they chose some of the rights
that they did.
Worksheet: Rights from Earth
“Lists of rights from South Africa
1.The right to learn and go to school.
2.The right to health.
3.The right to drive a car (for adults).
4.The right to sing.
5.The right to go to church.
6.The right to work (for adults).
7.The right to sleep.
8.The right to eat enough food.
9.The right to be protected and cared for by
parents or other, and not to be punished for
no reason.
10.The right to a home.
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 “This list was drawn up by a group of children aged 6-
12 from Khayelitsha, a black African township on the
edge of Cape Town in South Africa. Until 1994, black
people were not allowed to vote in South Africa, and
had very few rights. Education for most black children
was very poor, with overcrowded schools, overworked
teachers, and very few resources. Although things are
changing now, life for black children is still difficult, and
sometimes dangerous.
“This group of children live in an area of small houses
built by their families from many different types of
material. They meet in a small room on the side of the
house where their co-ordinator lives. Some of the older
children travel out of Khayelitsha to newly „multi-racial‟
schools where black African and „coloured‟ children
now mix. The younger children go to neighborhood
schools where the pupils are all black African”(Oxfam
[online], 2010).
In South Africa black children didn’t have the same
rights as white children to education so we think
that this is why they chose education as their first
right. They weren’t allowed in the same schools as
the white children.
We found it very interesting that they chose the
right to sing as we couldn’t understand why. So we
asked Siobhán Van der Berg to explain why they
chose this right. During the apartheid black children
were not allowed to sing in their own languages. The
white supremacists would only allow them to sing in
languages that they could understand, English or
Afrikaans. If they were caught they would be
brought to the police station. They would have a
criminal record and would be unable to get a job in
the future. They were also beaten with a whip made
of reeds and plastic that was used to herd cattle.
They would get 2 or 3 lashes. They would have a
doctor there to witness what happened.
8
In the prison they were only allowed to
sing in their own language if there was a
guard who spoke it present. The
supremacists were frightened of the
people singing rebel songs. Singing is
really important in their culture and it was
a part of who they were. So stopping them
singing was taking a really important part
of their culture away.
We think that black children felt that
they were punished because they were
black and this is why they said that they
didn’t want to be punished for no reason.
At that time there was a curfew in South
Africa and people were not allowed to be
out in the dark. Because the schools were
so far away the black children were
travelling in the dark to get there on time
and they risked breaking the curfew and
getting into trouble with the police.
There were shops for black and for white
people and black children were not allowed
in white shops even if they had the money
to buy things there.
South African National Anthem
The National Anthem of South Africa is
now made up of the five most spoken of
South Africa’s eleven recognised
languages. It is a combination of two
songs which represent the two sides of
South Africa joining together. They will
all be part of a new future together.
 South African National Anthem

Xhosa) Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika God [Lord] bless Africa

Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo,
(Zulu) Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.
(Sesotho) Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho,
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
Setjhaba sa, South Afrika - South Afrika.
(Afrikaans) Uit die blou van onse hemel,
Uit die diepte van ons see,
Oor ons ewige gebergtes,
Waar die kranse antwoord gee,
Raise high its glory
Hear our prayers
God bless us, her children
God, we ask You to protect our nation
Intervene and end all conflicts
Protect us, protect our nation, our nation,
South Africa - South Africa
From the blue of our sky,
From the depth of our seas,
Over our everlasting mountains,
Where the crags resound,

(English) Sounds the call to come together,

And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom
In South Africa our land.

Ethiopia

“Lists of rights:
1.The right to food.
2.The right to shelter.
3.The right to clothes.
4.The right to transportation.
5.The right to a hospital.
6.The right to a school.
7.The right to a market.
8.The right to a recreation place.
All the children go to ordinary schools, where
9.The right to a workplace.
there are often over 100 pupils to a class. They
10.The right to electricity.
also train with the circus three days a week,
“This list was drawn up by a group of ten sometimes travelling a long distance to get
children aged 9-18. They belong to a circus there. Their training hall and their circus „family‟
school in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. are very important to them. This might explain
why the right to a recreation place is important
to them” (Oxfam [online], 2010).

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 We think the Ethiopian children’s rights are very
simple, like the right to food, the right to shelter
etc. Some of the Irish rights are very complicated
because we take food and shelter for granted.
Lebanon
“Lists of rights:
1.The right to breathe clean air.
2.The right to have treatment when sick.
3.The right to have enough food.
4.The right to have a close friend.
5.The right to have a house.
6.The right to study at school.
7.The right to be integrated into society and have a
chance to learn from life.
8.The right to have a car.
9.The right to rely on yourself and be independent.
10.The right to play and take part in sports.
“This list was drawn up by a group of disabled and
able-bodied children aged 8--14 from Lebanon.
Lebanon, in the Middle East, is a country recovering
from a long period of civil war. Some of the disabled
people in Lebanon were injured during the fighting. It
is common for young people with disabilities to attend
special schools which keep them away from their
families and able-bodied friends.
“All the children in this group are involved in the
Lebanon Sitting Handicapped Association (LSHA),
which is an organisation run by disabled people. LSHA
helps disabled people to claim their rights. One way of
doing this is by helping children with disabilities to go
to the same schools as the able-bodied.
10
“The right to have a car was argued for by
just one child, Jalal, who got his way in the
end. Since the war in Lebanon ended there
have been few bus services and trains
operating. It is very hard to get around
without a car. Another child, Abed, spoke
about how different rights are related:
„Unless I have a house, I cannot have the
right to study or be at school or to be
integrated into society” (Oxfam [online],
2010).
We thought that the right to a friend was
the most interesting because people here
would presume that they would have a
friend. We think that they chose this one
because so many children are in special
schools separated from family and
friends.
In the cities in the Lebanon there is very
bad smog due to traffic and pollution
from factories. This is one of their
biggest health problems. It costs them
565 million dollars a year about 4% of
GDP.
We thought they chose the right to be
integrated into society because of the
divide between Muslims and Christians.
We thought that this was similar to the
situation that used to happen in Northern
Ireland between Catholics and
Protestants. Maybe they are curious
about each other and that’s why they
want to learn from life and about each
other.
Because the Lebanon was under French rule we think
that independence is very important to Lebanese
people.
Here are the rights we chose as important to
children in our school in Ireland.
1. Every child has the right to go to school and
do better in life because of education.
2. You have the right to live and to live in
freedom and safety.
3. Nobody has the right to torture you.
4. You should be legally protected in the same
way everywhere and everyone should have the
same legal rights.
5. You have the right to own things and nobody
has the right to take these without good
reason.
6. Your work day should not be too long since
everyone has the right to rest and should be
able to take holidays.
7. Primary school should be free. At school you
should be able to develop all your talents and
you should be taught to get on with others.
You should be able to learn a profession or
continue your studies as far as you wish.
8. Everyone has the right to food and water.
We noticed that food and water were right at
the bottom and housing doesn’t come up at all.
We have to pay for water in our school and we
don’t think that this is fair. We do just
presume that we will get these though.
We feel that although education is supposed to
be free, we still have to pay for books,
stationary, art supplies, photocopying and
trips. The Parent’s Council are always
fundraising because we don’t have enough
money for equipment. We don’t really think
that education is free. Because our school is
not in a disadvantaged area we get less funding
for everything. We should all have a right to
the same facilities.
In Ireland we are worried about working for
too long hours but in Ethiopia they just want
any job they don’t care what it is. Maybe this
is changing because of the recession when so
many people have no jobs.
This is what children in these countries want
for the future. We think that we should fund
raise to help them get what they want. We
must tell the government to help these
children and developing countries. We must
also make sure in Ireland that children have
the same rights too. We think that it is
important that other people be given this
information as we were very shocked when we
discovered it. If more people know about this
problem then it is more likely to be solved.
This would make a better future for everyone
in the world. We think that we have a
responsibility to help other children to get the
type of future that they want.
Information From: Oxfam, 2010
11
 Some things are the same no matter where you go...
Our names are Callum and Lorcan and we decided to take pictures in our school and compare
them to a school in Malawi. We got the photos from Colm and Danielle McCann who have
just returned from volunteering in a school there. We decided to look for similarities and
differences. We were able to see how lucky we are in Ireland to have all these resources
available to us. We were surprised by how many things were the same in both schools so
maybe in the future their school could be just like ours.
We are getting a new school in 2012 when we are joining with Scoil Mhuire Fatima to make
a mixed school. We will be the last set of boys to come through Congress Avenue and the
new school will probably be very different from Malawi. So these might be the last times
we see photos of things like wooden desks and blackboards in St. Mary’s Parish. So Malawi
won’t be the only school that is different in the future our school will be very different as
well. Callum has a brother in 1st class and Lorcan has a brother in Junior Infants. Their
future in the school will be different than ours and we hope that it will be better.

In Malawi they use blackboards we have them in some of our classrooms too!

In Malawi they really love having books in school and we love to read also

12
This is the yard in Malawi and this is part of our yard area!

They put their chairs on the desks just like us

In Malawi they have wooden desks just like ours!

13
 Our school and the school in Malawi are made of red brick!
We are very lucky in our school to have lots of resources. We hope in the future that the children in
Malawi can have some of the more modern things that we have too like reliable electricity!

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15
 The Life of a Child Soldier We think that they do this because:

 Family members might have already

done so;
 For religious reasons;
 They sometimes get paid and it’s the
only way to earn money;
 They think that they are going to
help their countries by being a child-
soldier;
 Sometimes the children are orphans
and are targeted because they have
Hello my name is Christopher Cudden and my
no family to care for them;
partner is Patrick Mooney we are doing our
 They have no chance to get
project on child-soldiers and how they become
educated.
child-soldiers.
Training:
How Child-Soldiers are recruited
It’s sad the way children are recruited in over
50 countries and in over 30 conflicts. There is
about 500,000 child soldiers and it is thought
that 300,000 are involved in armed combat.
In these countries and conflicts there are
rebels that go into family homes and take the
children from the other members of the
family. The rebels take the children to rebel
barracks so they can train them to use
The children are trained by other children
weapons. Most child-soldiers are between the
but sometimes there are adults who train
ages of 15 and 18 years old, but some are as
them too. They have games where they put
young as seven. Most but not all soldiers
mines into water so the children can’t see
under the age of 18 are believed to be part of
them.
non state armed forces. Most children who
are not fighters are runners, scouts,
porters, slaves, cooks or spies. Child-soldiers
are often abducted from their villages. Some
children are volunteered by their parents.
Children can be forced to go by their
communities because otherwise their villages
may be attacked.

Sometimes some children volunteer.

16
The children then have to race and whoever is first is freed. They are often punished violently and
given drugs to make them do terrible things. We think that if a child kills one person they might feel
stronger and be more violent to others. The child- soldiers are given targets that they have to
achieve. They have to improve their accuracy and build up their strength.

What are their jobs:

1. Some of them have jobs training other children and they sometimes have to punish them if they
try to escape.
2. Some of them are given special light weaponry like AK47’s and M16’s and go into battle and kill
other children.
3. Sometimes they raid other villages and capture other children and are forced to kill their own
family members and neighbours.
4. Sometimes they work in the camps as slaves to other soldiers.
5. They work as guards to make sure other children don’t escape.

Reason why we think that children might stay as child-soldiers

 Some of the child-soldiers like being child-soldiers because they might think it’s cool going
around killing other children.
 They might have made lots of friends in the camps or barracks.
 They might have relations who are at war and they might want to be like them when they are
older.
 Some might be just naturally aggressive and want to go around killing other people.
 Even if the children do want to escape they might be afraid to leave because if they are caught
they get violently punished.
Sometimes the children’s families are threatened so they are afraid they will be hurt or maybe

Where is it happening?
even executed. Sometimes children are forced to kill or hurt a family member so that they
cannot return home.
Country Who’s Recruiting Numbers
Burma Burma’s 70,000
National Army
Sri Lanka Rebel Forces 6,000
Iraq Insurgent Unknown
Groups
Afghanistan Taliban Militias Unknown
Colombia Guerilla Forces 14,000
DRC Government & 30,000
Rebel Forces
Source: Warchild (online, 2010)

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 How can we make their futures’ brighter?
If we want to change things then we can start
Child Soldiers Around the World
in our school.
Q. What do child soldiers do?
 We are going to make other children aware
of the problem then they might tell their
A. Child soldiers take part in combat, lay
parents who will tell the politicians.
mines and explosives. They also work as
 We are going to link our project to the
spies and scouts, decoys and couriers.
class blog so that other people can read it.
Some work as guards or they may do
 Charlie and Brandon made a poster. They
training drills. Other children work in the
are putting it up in the school to make
background giving support to active
others aware others of child-soldiers.
troops.

Facts and Figures

Information from:
www.child-soldier.org
www.warchild.org
www.oneworld.net
www.amnesty.org/en/children
www.cyberbus.in.org/childsoldiers

The Fight to Ban Child

Soldiers Around the World

Our names are Michael McCamley and Donald

Campbell and we are writing about child soldiers.
We are writing about how the U.N.’S laws will
improve the future of child-soldiers.
 Over 50 countries currently recruit
children under 18 into their armed
forces.
 Over half of the child soldiers are
recruited in Africa even though they
have signed protocols against it.
 Some children can start as young as
seven years of age.
 In the past 10 years 2 million child
soldiers have died.
 In the past 20 years children under
18 years old have fought in 16
different wars in over 20 different
countries.

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What laws protect these children?
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child deals
with the rights of children in times of peace and
conflict. It deals with survival, family support,
education, health-care and nutrition.
The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court says that to use children as soldiers under the
age of 15 is a war crime.
The 1999 ILO Convention on the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour bans recruitment of
children under 18 for armed conflict.
The 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child stated that children under 18 could not
participate in armed conflict.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child was adopted by the UN on the 25th May
2000. It makes the convention stronger in several
ways.
 Children cannot be conscripted to armed combat
until they are 18
 Children cannot be recruited voluntarily until they
are at least 16. Under 18 year old must have
special protection
 Armed groups are not allowed to recruit anyone
under 18.
 Countries must provide training and programmes
to rescue children from being soldiers.
How has the U.N. made progress?
In 1994 The U.N. appointed Mrs. Graca
Machel to study how children were
affected by conflict.
In 1997 the U.N. appointed a special
representative on the impact of armed
conflict on children. He has worked with
the following countries:
 Burundi
 Colombia
 Democratic Republic of the Congo
 Sierre Leone
 Sri Lanka
 Sudan
He has tried to get them to agree:
1. Not to recruit or use children as
soldiers
2. Not to attack schools or hospitals
In the countries where the UN has peace
keeping duties they have appointed Child
Protection Advisers. They are there to
look after the rights of the child.
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 How is the U.N. secretary trying to help?
The U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan in July 2000 asked
countries to:
1. Accept the Optional Protocol on the
Convention of the Rights of the Child
2. Adjust their own laws to make sure they
support the International Criminal Court
3. Not to prosecute child-soldiers for war
crimes.
4. Prosecute people and companies who sell arms
in conflicts that have child soldiers.
5. Not to support countries that use child
soldiers in any way.
6. Improve children’s lives so that they won’t
want to become child soldiers.
7. Provide education for children who were child-
soldiers in the past.
Why do we still have child-soldiers?
 Even when the country signs up to the
protocols some illegal groups will still recruit
children
 Even though they sign to the treaty some
countries continue to have child-soldiers.
 Light weight arms such as g4’s, AK47’s, M16s,
M17s, SA80’s and other weapons. If these
weapons were banned then it would be more
difficult for children to handle weapons.
There is one death from small arms nearly
every minute.
 Countries such as, UK, France and the USA
earn more from selling weapons to developing
countries than they donate to them.
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What we in Ireland can do to help?
In 2006 Ireland became a member of the
MDRP (Multi Country De-mobilisation and
Reintegration Programme). It pledged
500.000 euro to a fund to help children
reintegrate into their villages. It works within
the Great Lake Region of Africa with the UN
and the World Bank. It works with the
following countries:
 Angola
 Burundi
 The Central African Republic
 The Democratic Republic of Congo
 The Republic of Congo
 Rwanda
 Uganda
The HSE set up a child and adolescent mental
health service for any refugee child soldiers
who came to Ireland. When the UN’s
committee on the rights of the child spoke
about the progress of Ireland in implementing
the protocols it said that Ireland did not do
enough for the welfare of child-soldiers who
are refugees. Since 1999 over 5,000 children
have come to Ireland on their own. Many of
them come from countries where child
soldiers are used.
We think that the government should do more
to stop child-soldiers being used. The
government should put pressure on countries
which use child-soldiers to stop. They should
speak to the ambassadors and make sure that
Irish money is not supporting organisations
which use child-soldiers. We should put
pressure on countries where we have links not
to sell light arms to countries where child-
soldiers are used. Ireland should put political
pressure on countries which signed up to
OPAC to do what they said they would do. It
should also put pressure on countries which
haven’t signed up yet to do so.
Our group made a poster to show that we feel that this should stop.

Information from:
www.child-soldier.org
www.warchild.org
www.amnesty.org/en/children
www.childrensrights.ie

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 The Recession and Developing World Charities

Our names are Charlie and Reza. We chose to

examine the difference between local charities
and the charities that help the developing
world in the recession.

First we rang Oxfam’s in George’s Street

Dublin. Kayoko from Oxfam said that donations
were down however sales were the same in the
recession. Next we rang Cathy from Gorta in
Dublin. She said that similarly sales were up
but donations were down.
Lastly, we spoke to Lillian from the Saint
Vincent de Paul in Fair Street in Drogheda. She
said that sales were just down and donations
were on a par. Saint Vincent de Paul helps local
people financially and with clothes. Lillian
stated that children’s clothes were in
particularly high demand.
So we feel that people are giving more to
charities which help the local community rather
than the developing world. Saint Vincent de
Paul particularly thought that their donations
were still high because they had a local profile.
They also regularly advertise for donations.
The demand for their services in the recession
is up 50-60 per cent.
In the recession people seem to be shopping in
charity shops more as sales are up but they
seem to keep their donations for more local
shops.
Charlie got the figures from St. Mary’s
Parish in Drogheda for the Trócaire
boxes. We were interested to see how
the donations had been falling for the
last four years. We felt that this was
partly due to the financial difficulties
that we are currently in. We also felt
that the Trócaire boxes needed to be
promoted more. Posters could be put up in
the school and the church to make people
more aware. We think that more could be
done in the school to remind people about
the boxes. If someone was available to
come into the school and tell us about
where the money goes it would make
people more likely to remember the boxes
and donate more.
We received information from Oxfam, Gorta
and St. Vincent de Paul.
The vox pop was given to teachers in school
and neighbours and friends.
We received the information for the graph
from Fr. Denis Nulty parish priest in St.
Mary‟s Drogheda.

22
 Ireland and the Developing World
My name is Yannick and I am going to talk about
the government cut-backs in aid and how that is
affecting developing countries. We’re in the
middle of a recession and we don’t have much
money in the country but we are taking funding
from the poorest people in the world.
Trócaire has had to stop programmes in Zambia,
Nigeria, Indonesia and Peru and really cut back
work in Angola. In the other 27 countries that
Trócaire works with they have also had to stop
some programmes.
In Angola, Trócaire were helping 67,000 villagers.
They were giving them training and better seed
and water systems. This meant the villagers were
able to have two meals a day before they were not
getting enough food for four months of the year.
It may go back to the way it was before they
started helping.
In 2009 the Irish Government were supposed to
give Trócaire 23 million euro but they only gave
16 million. Trócaire is trying to save money but
they still are unable to do the work they had
planned.
How did the money that Trócaire were given by
the Irish government make a difference to the
future of people in developing countries?
 In 2007 in Malawi, 38% of households didn’t
have enough food but in 2009 only 10% had
too little.
 In 2009, 185,000 households in Ethiopia were
helped with irrigation.
 In El Salvador, they now grow 9 crops instead
of 5 so the crops are safer from diseases.
 In India, Trócaire helped train over 1000
farmers.
 In Nicaragua, 2,400 families have more food.
How has the government cut spending
unfairly?
 It cut funding to aid by 27% and the
average to other departments was
only 6%.
 The government in 2006 donated
0.41% of GNP. This rose to 0.58% in
2008. Now it has dropped to 0.52%.
This is only one half of a percent of
what the government earns. It had
promised to give 0.7% by 2015 but
now it is going backwards on its
promise.
 If the government cuts the funding
again this year then we are not going
to reach the Millennium Development
Goals. 70 cent per 100 euro is not
that much to us but it is a huge
amount to developing countries where
people are starving.
What can we do in our school?
We went on to Act Now on 2015 and we
sent an email to
1. Dermot Ahern
2. Séamus Kirk
3. Arthur Morgan
4. Fergus O’ Dowd
We said that we want the Irish
government to keep their promise so
we can reach the Millennium
Development Goal in 2015.
Information from:
www.trócaire.org
www.actnowon2015.org
23
 Charity Vox Pop
Our names are Charlie and Yannick and we are
going to talk about the vox pop results. The survey
was anonymous. Charlie and Reza gave 12 of them
to teachers in the school. The teachers’ results
were collected first and this is how we were able
to see the difference between the answers. 9 of
the surveys were given to people from countries
other than Ireland.
Q1 Would you donate to development aid
charities?
Most people said that they would donate to
development aid charities.
Q2 Would you donate to charities that help the
local community?
24
While we had 4 people who said that they
were unlikely to give to development aid
charities, we had no one who said that they
were unlikely to give to a local charity.
Q3 Would you prefer to donate to charities
that help the local community
14 people out of 31 said that they would
prefer local charities. Some said that they
would prefer development aid charities when
specified by the questioner. One was
undecided. We felt that we should have made
the answer options different maybe
development aid, local charities or both and
we might have received clearer answers.
Q4 Do you donate to charity by money or
items or both?
Only 5 people would give money alone to
charity shops. One person suggested that we
should have included time as some people
donate this rather than none.
19 out of 31 people said that they thought the
government should reduce funding and some said
that since the IMF had come in they felt the
Q7 Would you buy a charity gift?
situation had changed. They felt that the situation
had changed so drastically lately that difficult
decisions had to be made. We think that usually
they would be happy to give to other countries but
in the financial situation we are in we don’t have
the money to give anymore.

Q6 Will you donate to charity this Christmas?

Even more people, 22, said that they

would buy a charity gift so they’re
obviously very attractive to
customers.

Q8 Will you give more or less than in

other year?

Even though people didn’t want the government to

give money, 21 out of 31 were happy to do so
themselves. It seems to depend on your personal
circumstances. We think that this depends on job
security.

We think that due to the financial state of the
country people felt that the government had to
focus on our own problems but privately, if the
situation allowed, they were happy to donate.
18 people would change the amount of
money that they would donate either
up or down so the financial situation
has a decisive effect on donations. It
might have been clearer if we had
given the answer options are more,
less or the same as many people
specified this rather than yes or no.

25
 Q9 Do you feel that some charities are more
worthwhile and why?
Only 11 out of 31 knew about the goals and
there were only 4 non teachers knew about
them.

We think that the government should

educate people more on the goals. If
people knew what the money was going to
they might be happier to donate it or to
see the government donate it.

What did we learn?

We need to give more options for the
answers as people often made their own
Only 4 people felt that all charities were worth
answers up if they didn’t like the options.
the same. Some of the answers that people gave
The teachers’ answers were very different
were:
from the general public. The teachers
seemed to know more about developing
 it depends on marketing
countries and the reasons for donations
 children’s charities are more worthwhile
for example the millennium goals. We think
especially one that deal with starvation
that this is because of past experience
 if it was felt that the people were more
with doing projects. We think that we need
deserving then the charity was more
to tell people outside of the school about
worthwhile
the millennium goals and the developing
 the bigger charities receive more attention
world. We need to share the information
and some thought that there were too many
that we have learnt in this project.
new charities
We think that people in Ireland are
 charities that spend less money on
generally very generous. But the financial
administration and promotional aids were
situation does change what they think.
more worthwhile
They don’t want the government to
 charities that can make a difference quickly
increase what it gives and many wanted it
for example in disasters
to decrease. But by themselves people
 charities that help struggling parents
were happy to give to charity if they could.
 it depends on what the cause is
Some people said that they would prefer
 some are not as good as others
to give to development aid charities. It
seemed to be evenly split between those
Q10 Are you aware of the Millennium
who would give to local versus development
Development Goals?
aid. A lot of people would just give to any
charity who they felt were deserving
especially if they didn’t spend the money
on administration.

26
 TRÓCAIRE
My name is Roendell. I want to talk about how
we help the developing world have a better
future. In our parish, St. Mary’s, we get
Trócaire boxes every Lent. Domitille is the girl
from the Trocaire box. This is her story.
All About Domitille
Domitille is 6 years old. Domitille loves her
family. Domitille loves her parents most.
Domitille loves to play with her brother and
her sister. She goes to nursery. Her jobs are
collecting water in a jar of water on her head.
It is five km. to the bore hole and then they
to queue when they get there. She also sweeps
the floor with a broom but it is hard work
because the cow is in the kitchen.
Triphonie is the mother of the family.
Triphonie is 43 years old. She is the mother of
lliumine, Domitille, Irene, Anaclet, Violette and
Claudine. Froduard is the father. He is 46
years old.
The Domitilles family have very little.
They only have 1 euro to feed eight people
in the house. To earn money, Domitille’s
mother makes baskets and her father
makes bricks. In their garden there are
two cows. One of the cows belongs to a
neighbour. Domitille’s family drink and sell
the milk and keep the manure to fertilise
their crops. One cow is pregnant and when
it gives birth, Domitille’s parents will give
the calf to a neighbour. Triphonie grows
cassava, peanuts, beans and sorghum on
her 30-metre plot.
Sometimes Domitille’s family do not have
enough to eat. Domitilles' parents give any
food they have to the children, but
Domitilles still gets hungry and cries.
Iliumine is 18 years old. Iliumine was in
class 6 in primary school. Iliumine's
favourite part of the day is school time.
Iliumine favorite subject is english. When
lliumine grows up she would like to be a
teacher.
Irene is the youngest in the family. Irene
has one brother and four sisters.
Anaclet is Domitille’s brother. Anaclet is
14 years old. He is the third eldest of the
family. Anaclet wears a yellow uniform to
school.
Violette is 10 years old. Violette wears a
blue uniform to school. Violette is the
fourth eldest in the family.
Cluadine is the eldest of the children. She
is 23 years old.
27
 How Domittile’s Life Has Changed...
Since the Trocaire box appeal, Domitille’s
family have joined the farming co-op. The
family gives 23 cent a week to the coop and
once a month a family gets to buy a goat or a
pig. They can get seeds and tools and they are
taught how to farm. Domittile’s mother,
Triphonie, has joined a women’s group. She is
learning to read, write and weave.

Our names are Jamie and Olimpio and

we want to write about the Goal Jersey
Day that we had in our school. Last
month we had the Goal Jersey Day in
our school and we raised 926 euro. We
got to wear our favourite jersey into
school which we are not usually allowed
to do. We brought in 2 euro to be given
to Goal.

How does Goal use the money we raise?

 It is used for emergencies like

floods, earthquakes, civil wars etc.
 For health -
o to build health centres
o to run emergency feeding
programmes
o to run inoculation programmes
o to train staff
 It is used for education
o to build and rebuild schools
o to pay for resources and stationary
o to get slum children into schools
 It improves water and sanitation to
prevent disease and trains locals to
look after them.
We have helped Domitille and her family to  Every day 9,000 people die from
have a better future by giving in the Trócaire
Aids and HIV related illnesses and
Goal works to help these people.
box.

Information from: www.trocaire.org

28

Next year we think that we could break this
record and raise even more for Goal. We have
some ideas to improve the day.
 We think it would be a good idea if all
the teachers were to wear a jersey on
the day.
 We could also have a raffle for
everyone who took part in the jersey
day and the winner could get a free
football from the school.
 We could ask Goal to send someone to
tell the students about how the money
raised helped the developing world.
 The parents should get a school text to
remind them that we are having the day
and to encourage more students to wear
jerseys.
 A class could make a chart recording
the amount wearing different jerseys.
They could then show other students
which was the most and least popular
jersey. More people might wear jerseys
to support their team or country.
 The class who raises the most money
could have an extra hour of P.E. as a
reward.
The Shoebox Appeal
Our names are Declan and Leo and we’re
going to tell you about the Shoebox Appeal
in our school. Life is difficult in Ireland at
the moment but we are still trying to make
life better for children in developing
countries. Our shoeboxes this year went to
Eastern Europe. A lady came in and showed
us a dvd all about the shoeboxes. There
were posters in the school and we got a
leaflet about it. We collected 180
shoeboxes from 1st to 6th class. We
collected more this year than last year so
we were very happy.
Declan
I did a shoebox and I’m going to tell you
about it. First me and my Mum went
shopping for it. We decided that we would
do it for a boy aged six to seven. My Mum
went to Tesco and chose clothes like
pyjamas, socks and t-shirts. We also put in
lots of sweets like drumsticks. We put in
colours. We put three euro in an envelope to
pay for the post to Eastern Europe. Then we
wrapped it in Christmas paper. We had to
wrap the lid separately so that they could
check that everything was okay. We made
sure that we had no war toys and that the
clothes were new. I hope that the boy that
gets it really likes it. I hope that it makes
him happy and helps him in the future. I
think that the shoe boxes are a good idea
because we get lots of presents but these
children don’t get anything. Now they will
get a present from me.
Leo
I got a box and wrapped it with Christmas
paper. I made it for a boy aged 8-10. I had
to wrap the lid on its own so the box
[Type your signature(s) as teacher(s) or aide(s).] 29
 could be opened and checked. Then I collected some of my toys, little figures and my Mam
went to Penneys to get some more. We put in pyjamas, t-shirts and socks. We put in some
jellies as well. I put three euro in the envelope to get it delivered. I had to seal the box with
two elastic bands.

I wanted to send the box so that the children would have something to play with and better
clothes. I don’t think that they’ll get many presents. I think that the present will make them
feel happy and excited. In school, the sixth class boys collected all the boxes and the lady
came to collect them. I think if we saw some photos of children getting the presents and we
could see how happy they are then we could collect more shoe boxes next year.

Information from:
www.teamhope.ie

30