8 young Irish people and 3 adult volunteers from the Foróige Mahon Youth Project in Cork were selected to participate in a Hong Kong- Ireland Youth Exchange Programme this summer. The exchange was co-sponsored by EIL and by the Hong Kong Commission on Youth.
The Foróige Ballyshannon/Bundoran Neighbourhood Youth Project hosted a Band Night Fundraiser on Thursday 22nd August in the Kickin' Donkey, Bundoran, Co. Donegal. The fundraiser was supported by three fantastic bands. Stonefree, Bangin' Yolks and Spinach participated on the night to raise funds for the local youth project.
The Secret Millionaire from RTÉ television has paid a visit to one of Foróige's youth projects, the Ballybane Traveller Youth Project in Co. Galway. Entrepreneur Enda O’Coineen has gifted the project with a donation of €5,000. Not only that, a small group of the young people will be taken to New Zealand in January to take a 10 day sailing course on the Spirit of Adventure Tall Ship. Enda is the founding Chairman of Let's Do It Global Ltd, the non-profit body that brought the Volvo Ocean Race to Ireland in May 2009.
Foróige has secured a national bag pack with Tesco, across all 101 of their stores, on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th of September this year. The bag pack has been organised to help generate funding for our clubs and projects throughout the country. We hope too that the bag packing initiative will also create more awareness of Foróige in Ireland. Please support our bag packers and our cause on these dates and look out for our purple t-shirts and branded buckets! Thank you.
The Quad Foróige Youth Centre is to set up innovative new computer programmes for young people 10-18 years in Roscommon town. On Tuesday, July 23rd the centre hosted a public meeting about the setting up of a CoderDojo and Techspace programme. Minister of State for Training & Skills, Ciaran Cannon and Lindsay MacVean of the Hello World Foundation (and CoderDojo Ambassador) attended the meeting, along with a number of potential volunteer mentors, parents and the general public.
Summer is a great time for young people. The days are long and bright, there is no school and possibilities for fun seem endless. However, for many young people the opportunities to enjoy summer activities are limited. This is a time when young people can lose contact with their peers and become disengaged from support systems such as school and communities.