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Self Help Africa's first 'National Sandwich Day' will take place across the country on Friday, 14th November next.

Get involved

Nearly 100 secondary schools across Ireland are actively involved with Self Help Africa's development education programme - hosting workshops, running events, and participating in a broad range of activities designed to raise awareness and improve understanding of the challenges facing people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

If you would like to find out more about this programme, or about how you might become involved, contact us by clicking here .
        
St. Mary’s Academy Jumble Sale in aid of Self Help Africa
        
A jumble sale, fun sports and a charity CD were amongst the activities organised by the Peace and Justice Group at St Mary’s Academy, Carlow recently, to raise funds to support the schools upcoming participation in Self Help Africa’s study visit to Burkina Faso.

The day’s activities netted over €2,100 for the cause, as students from Bishop Foley’s School joined their counterparts for a range of activities in the school gym.
Read more
        
The Big Test
        
The Big Test is a new website the offers students from primary through to secondary level a free and easy to use resource for improving their knowledge or studying for exams. The site has a wide variety of multiple-choice tests that cover a board spectrum of categories from mathematics and English vocabulary to driver theory.
        
The Big Test has one key difference that sets it apart from other Irish revision and educational websites, however. For each question the student answers correctly one life saving seed is donated to Self Help Africa. These seeds are then used by African farmers to grow better, higher yield crops that provide them and their families with nutrition and a source of income. So, each correct answer not only helps the student achieve at school, but also helps bring an end to hunger and poverty in rural Africa.
Loreto schools team up on book project
Self Help Africa has teamed up with a network of close to a dozen Loreto Secondary Schools from across Ireland to produce the third in our award-winning series of books on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The third book in the 'Twenty Fifteen' series is underway, with students from Loreto Schools from Dublin, Meath, Derry, Tyrone, Kilkenny and Cork collaborating on the creation of an MDG book looking at the issue of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. All of the students involved have participated in workshops on gender, organised by Self Help Africa's development education unit.

Schools who are taking part in the MDG project include Loreto Schools from Rathfarnham, Balbriggan, Dalkey and Swords in Dublin, from Kilkeny, Coleraine, Omagh, Navan, Letterkenny and Fermoy. Self Help Africa's Dev Ed coordinator spoke on the subject at the Loreto Order's Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation conference, last year.
YOU CAN GET INVOLVED Find out how

Transition Year resources

Self Help Africa's ongoing work to develop curriculum materials to support the presentation of development issues in the classrooms has borne fruit, with a comprehensive resource pack now launched, and available for schools to download below.

The module was developed in collaboration with students at CBS schools in Portlaoise and Carlow, and is currently with the Dept of Education National Council for Curriculum Awards (NCCA) for ratification. It is being piloted in 30 second level schools across the country, and will be presented before the National Seminar of Transition Year Coordinators in Athlone, in May. Funding support for the undertaking has been provided by Irish Aid.
Click Here to download school resources

St. Lorcan's school support

A big thanks to all the boys at St. Lorcan's National School in Palmerstown, Dublin, for their continuing
support for our African programmes.

The boys will organise a school sale and sports day again this year, and are aiming to continue the fantastic efforts for people in the developing world, in 2011.

Last year the St. Lorcan's students netted close to 2,000, and in 2009 they raised over 1,200 from a day long school fundraiser. Keep up the good work, and thanks again lads !!

Workshops, lectures & seminars

Self Help Africa arranges workshops, lectures and seminars on development related topics, in Irish schools.

Schools who are interested in hosting a visiting speaker, or might wish their students to take part in a participatory workshop in their classroom, should get in contact with us.

To find out how your school can get involved contact us here.
      
Clonakilty takes Africa award
      
A solar powered fridge designed by three teenagers from West Cork was awarded the Irish Aid/Self Help Africa Science for Development Award, at the 2013 BT Young Scientists Exhibition in Dublin.

Transition year students Fergus Jayes, Darragh O’Donovan and Ciaran Crowley from Clonakilty Community College in Cork were presented with the prize by Minister of State for Development and Trade Joe Costello, at the annual prize-giving in Dublin’s RDS.
Read more

Clonkeen's Kenya success

Clonkeen College, Blackrock have continued their remarkable fundraising efforts for Self Help Africa - and have to date raised in excess of €40,000 towards the cost of constructing a new primary school at Thome, Kenya.

The school is being designed to replace an existing mud and cane dwelling, and will accommodate close to 150 students. Clonkeen College have forged an ongoing partnership with the school in Thome, and have been supporting the project for several years.

School linkages

Well done to all of the students and teachers at Tullamore College, whose fundraising efforts have netted more than €17,000 to support our work.

The school's efforts are to be invested in the development of a community water resource for villagers in the Rongai Region of Kenya's Rift Valley.
      

Interact on-line

Self Help Africa has started to develop online opportunities for our students to network socially with each other across the internet. If you can help, we'd love to hear from you.
Self Help Africa has a Facebook page. Check it out here
YouTube channel is on the way. Check out Sarah's, or Dervilla's video, from their trip to Ethiopia.
If you can help us with our myspace page, get in touch.
Hats on for africa logo

Hats on for Africa!

Hats on for Africa is a new campaign from Self Help Africa, dedicated to encouraging primary school children to get their thinking hats on about the problems facing Africa today.

When you organise your school 'Hats on for Africa' day, make sure that you take photos of the event. We'd love to see them and will publish the best ones that we get on our website.
Download the Hats on for Africa fact pack (pdf)
Download the Hats on for Africa activity map (pdf)
Hats on for africa logo

Africa Alive in the classroom

Bring Africa alive in the classroom - understand the issues, discover the rich and diverse cultures, and become a part of the solution to the challenges facing the world's second largest continent.
'Africa Alive' is Self Help Africa's innovative Development Education programme - offering teachers and students the change to engage in a very real way with the continent and its people.

School trips to Africa

Scores of students and teachers from dozens of secondary schools across Ireland have travelled to Africa on fact-finding field visits organised by Self Help Africa.

Supporting schools have been travelling with us for the past decade, and in the past two years have visited our programmes in Zambia and Ethiopia respectively. If you are interested in finding out more about how your school can become involved, or want some more details about our school visit programme, just get in touch.

Self Help Africa's Electric Picnic

Self Help Africa's student ambassador Tara McGrath was at last year's Electric Picnic festival, demonstrating latest protypes of the fuel-efficient cooker which won her a Young Scientists award a few years ago, and also engaging the concert going audience on development issues.

We were delighted to join Tara at the event, had great fun, and made some great new connections.

Classroom resources

As part of the Diseases of Poverty Consortium Self Help Africa has been working on a library of educational and information resources that can be used to support Development Education activities in the classroom.

Targeted specifically at Transition Years, the resources include information, worksheets and other support materials that are available for you to use. Why not follow the link below and find out more:
Click Here to download school resources

'My Big Idea'

Above a short clip from 'My Big Idea', a TV document that followed Irish student Tara McGrath, in Ethiopia last Easter. Tara was a winner at the BT Young Scientists Exhibition - and travelled to field test her winning fuel efficient stove. Her trip was sponsored by Irish Aid.

Classroom resources

Self Help Africa has a wide variety of resources, including textbooks and worksheets available, in English and Irish language versions. The documentation below was produced by Self Help Development International, the pre-integration name of the Irish NGO partner in Self Help Africa. Our contact details have since changed.
Water (1st book in textbook series) PDF (3.3mbs)
Food,Land & Trees (2nd book in textbook series) PDF (3.6mbs)
Health & Education(3rd book in textbook series) PDF (3.2mbs)
Uisce (1st book in textbook series-Irish language) PDF (3.2mbs)
Food, Land and Trees(2nd book in textbook series-Irish language) PDF (3.2mbs)
Health & Education (3rd book in textbook series-Irish language) PDF (3.2mbs)
                                                      WEST AFRICA                  ETHIOPIA                 KENYA                MALAWI                UGANDA                ZAMBIA                
Self Help Africa - UK
Second Floor, Westgate House,Dickens Court,
Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QU
Tel. +44 (0) 1743 277170
Self Help Africa - Ireland
Kingsbridge House, 17-22 Parkgate Street,
Dublin 8, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)1 6778880
Self Help Africa Inc.
41 Union Square West, Suite 1027
New York, NY 10003, USA
Tel. +1 212 206 0847
Self Help Africa is an international charity registered in Ireland and the United Kingdom Registered charity number: 6663 (Ireland), and 298830 (UK)
Self Help Africa is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organisation in the United States.
Self Help Africa receives
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institutional donors:
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