Ministerial launch for PREDA Galway Education Pack
PREDA Galway and Galway Community College have collaborated on an exciting new bilingual education initiative designed to highlight the groundbreaking and innovative projects being undertaken by the award winning child rights charity PREDA.
PREDA Galway will be celebrating its first birthday later this month and has been to the fore of many great projects deigned to aid the work of the charity’s founder and Rehab International Person of the Year Fr. Shay Cullen.
The main idea behind the Junior Cert centred CSPE Education Pack is to create awareness among students in Ireland about the work of PREDA and to awaken in our young people a sense of duty to help vulnerable young people in the Philippines. The pack, which is available in either English or Irish, is accompanied with a twenty two minute dvd entitled “Power of a Voice” which was filmed by a number of students from the 2008 PLC Film and TV class in Galway Community College. The documentary was warmly received at last years Galway Film Fleadh and highlights the work of PREDA and also focuses on the support given to the charity by the passionate Dublin based singer Damien Dempsey. He staged a concert in the Warwick last year which helped raise a little over 12,000 Euro for the children.
Since his concert Damien has cemented his links with PREDA Galway and is very enthusiastic about the power of the youth and their ability to solicit change in this ever challenging world. As a consequence he feels that this education pack can help inspire students to raise awareness and have a positive impact on children less fortunate than ourselves in the Philippines.
The Munster and Ireland rugby player Jerry Flannery has lent his considerable presence to our upcoming campaign. Martin Sheen, a long time PREDA supporter, recently described the work of PREDA Galway as “inspirational” while Fr. Shay Cullen has described the local groups work as being essential in helping end child exploitation in all its guises.
The principal of Galway Community College, Rita Duffy, is delighted with the support that both staff and students have given to PREDA over the years noting how,
“ a community can only be built when we give as well as receive”. Rita is very proud of the fact that Galway Community College supports PREDA as its main charity.
Former CEO of County Galway VEC, Mr . Philip Cribbin described the pack as being “excellently prepared, student friendly resource for teachers of CSPE considering an Action Project on the work of PREDA”. He also believed that it would help, “raise pupils’ awareness of the work being done by this charity in combating the exploitation of children”.
The pack contains lesson plans, handouts, a work sheet and a DVD, all explaining the great work of PREDA. It focuses in on the core concepts of the CSPE Junior Cert. Programme, namely Human Dignity, Interdependence, Rights & Responsibilities, to name but a few. Students are given background information on the Philippines as well as a map and plenty of class activities, including references to the main PREDA website www.preda.org.
There are also suggestions for Action Projects which students can engage in, in order to help exploited young people in the Philippines. It is envisaged that through this Education Pack young people will become involved in PREDA at various different levels and continue their interest in the work of this great organisation throughout their adult lives.
The Minister of State Pat Carey will be officially launching the CSPE pack in the library of Galway Community College on Monday the 9th of February at 3pm. Minister Carey was very quick to lend his assistance to PREDA Galway on learning of their work. The pack will be available for download on the PREDA Galway website www.predagalway.org and the dvd “Power of a Voice” will be available for viewing on YouTube in the coming days. The education, IT and film officers at PREDA Galway have put in huge energy into this initiative which will undoubtedly be rewarded with the interest that will be shown by students throughout the country as Galway is helping to lead the way in the fight for child rights.
For more information on the pack contact Galway Community College on 091 755464 or PREDA Galway on 0866681339 or email predagalway@gmail.com