Mr. Joseph Mc Grath, Executive Director, Students 10K for Chernobyl, Ireland The Students 10K
The title of this Irish student organisation comes from its main fund-raising
event - a 10 kilometre sponsored walk by students in colleges throughout the
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Students 10K was founded in 2000
to respond to the Chernobyl catastrophe and has been engaged in humanitarian
activities, chiefly in the Minsk region. We have been learning, as is
appropriate for an organisation which is centred on students, so our vision of
the future is still focussed on humanitarian activities, however we are
working towards economic development programmes in Bragin region under our
CORE obligations.
We have learned that prescribing aid is not appropriate. Nowadays, we work
hard at listening to our Belarussian friends in Minsk, Gomel and other regions
and agreeing the way forward. In 2004 and 2005, the Students 10K will be
involved in the development of a hospice programme in the Gomel Region,
building community based houses for mildly physical and mentally disabled
young people and funding and Day Care Centre in Minsk.
Under CORE Programme we are working with Irish universities to set up
scholarships for Belarussian students so that they can study Tourism
Economics, Sustainable Development and Enterprise. We are working towards a
marketing and operational plan for the creation of employment through tourism
based initiatives, perhaps involving the state and private sector. These
initiatives require considerable development before we can formalise them as
concrete proposals however we will have substantial work done by January 2005. The Students 10K is a voluntary organisation - with only one full time person.
This limits our time availability but we hope not our commitment to Belarus.
Joseph Mc Grath
Exec. Director
Students 10K
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