The pupils of the Model School Dunmanway raised over €300 in a sponsored walk for Christian Aid Ireland. 

Lisa Fagan, the Christian Aid Ireland Communication Officer, writes:

A sponsored walk by pupils of a historic school in west Cork has raised more than €300 for Christian Aid Ireland and highlighted the impact of climate change on some of the world’s poorest people.

Children at the Model School in Dunmanway walked around the grounds of their school for 5 kms while carrying a basin or bucket, symbolising the long journeys made by women and girls in drought-affected regions, in search of water.

Their walk was inspired by Rose Jonathan (68), a widowed grandmother from the Kitui region of eastern Kenya where severe drought and a changing climate mean that she must spend up to seven hours a day walking to fetch water for her family and livestock. Rose has been the sole carer for her six grandchildren since her husband died and her daughters moved to the city for work.

In the rural areas of many African countries, it falls to women and girls to collect water for their families and farm animals, and in drought-affected regions this can involve long and often dangerous journeys on foot. In Kenya, Christian Aid is responding to the crisis by funding the building of earth dams (low-tech community ponds) which capture and store water when the rains do come.

Andrew Coleman, Christian Aid Ireland’s Bandon-based Church and Community Officer, said:

The Model School in Dunmanway is rightly proud of its most famous past-pupil, Sam Maguire, after whom Gaelic football’s most prestigious trophy is named. But we reckon they should be just as proud of this generation of young people for their compassion for those on the frontline of the climate crisis.

Our thanks go to all the children and their parents as well as their teacher Mrs Buckley. We don’t have a silver cup to give you but in our eyes, you’re champions!