Tune in to Radio Kerry this Sunday evening from 8-9pm and you’ll hear Caint Chiarrai with Aimí Ni Riada.
Aimí, a past pupil of Castleisland Community College returned to her alma mater and interviewed the fifth year students for her weekly Sunday night programme.
A Fair Trade Town
The conversation was all about the students’ efforts in making Castleisland a Fairtrade Town and the awards they and their teacher Doreen Killington have garnered in the process.
In May 2018 they won the Young Social Innovators award in recognition of their initiative.
A total of 218 schools in Ireland took part in competition this year and ten schools including the community college were presented with national awards.
Elevate Programme
The college team has since been chosen by Young Social Innovators as one of the top six schools in the country and chosen to take part in the YSI Elevate programme.
The YSI Elevate programme supports the development of of high quality projects.
The students were invited to YSI offices in Dublin on October 24th along with five other schools. The programme is designed to help individuals and teams to gain confidence in communications, networking, planing and other areas identified to support and advance their work as social innovators.
Sessions with Professionals
They took part in training sessions with professionals from various fields of interest and their goal now is to persist with their campaign of creating an awareness of Fairtrade products and to promote Fair Trade.
This year with the completion of the new astro turf on the school grounds, the Young Social Innovators decided to promote Fair Trade footballs.
A Fair Trade soccer training football costs €20 which is comparable to the price of a normal training ball.
Better Pay for Stitchers
A total of 75% of the world’s hand stitched soccer balls are made in Pakistan. A stitcher typically makes three footballs per day earning a mere 30 cent per football.
A stitcher making up Fair Trade footballs earns 50 cent per football. The extra money, 60 cent per day, earned by supplying to the Fair Trade supplier ‘Balasport’ allows families to educate their children and to buy bags and books for school.
Access to clean water has been a problem but with the Fair Trade premium, a water filtration system has been set up.
Fair trade footballs are available on line from guineys.ie or balasport.co.uk
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