Self Help Africa Trip........by Laura O'Donovan

We, Laura O' Donovan, Fódhla Daly and Jessica Sweeney, three fourth year students, have just returned from an eye-opening week in Malawi with our teacher Ms. Long. We have and continue to work in our communities to fundraise the money needed to go on this trip as part of Gorta Self-Help Africa's development education programme. 

This programme aims to inspire a better understanding amongst Irish young people of the challenges facing people in the developing countries of Africa. We spent the week visiting the various projects being implemented by Gorta Self-Help Africa and witnessed first-hand the beneficial effects this charity work is having on Malawi. We visited a secondary school in Liwonde, which was one of the highlights of the trip for us. It was very inspiring to see the passion for education that exists there. We also got the chance to meet with the Irish ambassador to Malawi who gave us a very interesting account of the Irish governments involvement in the development of Malawi.

This was a life-changing experience for each of us and one that will stay with us forever, and we are very grateful to our school and Gorta Self-Help Africa for providing with this once in a lifetime opportunity. The sense of community spirit we experienced during our time in Malawi is something that will stay with us forever, and we hope that we can bring the knowledge we acquired on this trip back to our own locality. The importance of development education is more clear to us now than it ever was, and we look forward to sharing our experiences with our peers.