ENNIS students have raised more than €4,000 for charity, while also highlighting barriers to education which have left some youngsters ‘Locked Out of Education’.
Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year students recently presented the St Vincent de Paul with a cheque for €4,259.45, the proceeds of a fundraising and awareness raising campaign last December.
The campaign highlighted that many young people face being ‘Locked Out of Education’ because of rising rents and other costs while also raising funds for the St Vincent de Paul and was organised as part of their Young Social Innovators project. As part of their fundraising, the students camped out for a night at the school, and operated the St Vincent de Paul shop in Ennis for a day.
Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year Co-ordinator Martina McNamara has expressed appreciation to all of those who supported the students in their fundraising efforts and awareness campaign.
She explained that the students were moved to act when they discovered that over 230,000 students attend third level education annually in Ireland and recent statistics illustrate that four in ten cannot afford student accommodation.
One of the student Gaelcholáiste said, “The aim of our project was to heighten attention regarding this problem and to raise vital funds to aid students in paying for their accommodation. College should not be inaccessible for those who desire to attend and should be much more affordable.”
Ms McNamara told us, “We feel that students are being denied access to quality third level education due to consistently rising rents and other costs. It seems wrong, we all see the right to be educated as a human right and it is very unfair that students are being denied that.” The students worked with St Vincent de Paul which has an educational fund supporting students at primary, secondary and third level.
Last December’s fundraiser saw the students take over the St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Ennis for a day from 9am to 6pm. They were in charge of all aspects of running the shop, from pricing to serving customers.
The next night the students bedded down on school grounds, while maintaining social distancing, to yet again highlight the need for accessible and affordable education.