On the 17th of March hundreds of young people will take to the streets of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, adding even more colour to Ireland’s greenest day. The Suas volunteers will be painting shamrocks on the faces of revellers young and old and accepting donations to support schools in the slum areas of India and Kenya.
All the money raised by the Suas volunteers goes directly to Suas’ partner schools in Calcutta, India and Nairobi, Kenya. Last year, Suas was the official charity of the St. Patrick’s Festival and raised around €32,000. Along with other fundraising, this provides a quality, holistic education for almost 2,500 children living in the cities’ poorest areas, some of whom are the first generation in their families to receive a formal education.
Suas is an Irish charity originally set up by third-level students that supports educational projects in Ireland as well as overseas. Suas offers volunteering opportunities for young people nationwide to engage in community programmes such as homework clubs, refugee mentoring programmes, computer and radio clubhouses. Young people also engage in awareness raising projects and fundraising events for the partner schools. Suas is also sending a team of 90 Irish third-level volunteers to work with partner schools for ten weeks during the summer of 2007.
Suas CEO, Dr. Colman Farrell said that “The Suas St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser is a great example of young people giving up their St. Patrick’s Day to support their peers overseas. When €100 provides quality education, including food and books, for a child for a year, just think how far the proceeds from the St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser will go.
“The schools supported by Suas are run by leaders in their communities making a difference by providing education in disadvantaged areas. We are delighted to be supporting them”
For further information about Suas or to volunteer on St. Patrick’s Day go to www.suas.ie