Ros Geal University Residence

We try to help students see their studies in the context of a bigger picture: the importance of becoming good workers and well-balanced, upright citizens with a social conscience.

IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

At Ros Geal, students have the chance to help people in need in Galway and in the broader Irish community. Students have frequent opportunities to participate in activities with Inkwell Youth Group, an initiative of Ros Geal, in one of their numerous outreach programmes or volunteer training courses.

Over the summer months, Ros Geal students have helped out in Ballybane Resource Centre in a multi-cultural fun camp organised for children, on a summer camp for refugee children in the Eglington Hotel, Salthill. Students have traveled abroad to Poland to work with Polish students in an orphanage and local hospice. Residents of Ros Geal are also actively involved with the elderly, working with refugees, and assisting local youth groups, such as Spiddal Youth Group and Ballyglunin Youth Forum. Volunteers are currently prepare members of these two clubs for their participation in an international song contest hosted by London’s Tamezin Club.

OVERSEAS

Each year Ros Geal, in cooperation with Inkwell Youth Group, runs activities that aid in developing the mind as well as helping the community at large. Recently, students participated in several youth exchanges partially funded by the European Exchange Bureau, Léargas, such as travelling to Spain to explore Celtic culture together with Spanish students from Galicia. Students also took part in the Camino de Santiago, a 120 km walk. During the early summer of 2004, students got together with young people from Poland for an exchange, ‘Volunteer: Look around U’. Students held daily workshops on the challenges they faced as volunteers, then went to work in a local orphanage and a home for the elderly in Szczecin, Northern Poland. Inkwell member Nikky Flynn commented, ‘It gave me new ideas for volunteering endeavors. Volunteering is about doing the small things as part of a group.’ Groups have also taken part in aid work in Peru, Lithuania and Kenya.

'AIDING RESOURCES'

'Aiding Resources' is an Irish NGO which fundraises for educational and medical necessities in African countries. Aiding Resources is offering a work placement fund to students of Ros Geal which will match student skills with real needs. The programme is geared towards graduates or students who are taking a year out and who want to travel and put their skills at the service of those in need. Locations include Kenya, Congo, and the Ivory Coast. For more information, contact rosgeal@eircom.net.