Why care?
Labour’s Eamon Gilmore was due to be the launcher, but at the last minute the drama in Leinster House pulled him away. So it was the Crescent Transition Year students themselves who on 20th January launched Why Care? a web-based resource (www.whycare.ie) produced by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. Eoin Carroll, Advocacy Officer with the JCFJ, summarised the idea behind it: to promote an understanding that social justice is a fair society, where peoples’ needs are met, human dignity is respected, access to employment provided and human rights accorded. It is available to schools around the country to focus young people’s minds on families’ problems and the level of inequalities all over the world. Speakers welcomed the initiative from a range of viewpoints. Read more.Dermot Cowhey, Director of Ethos in Crescent College: “The Jesuit philosophy is about getting young people to go out and respond to injustice, it might not be straight away, but the website will help students to understand social situations and respond to injustice and inequality.”
Jack Varley, a student in the school: “We’ve learned loads about human rights and how everyone deserves a fair chance in life. It’s something we could look into and try to change, but it’s more up to whoever’s in government, they have the power to do things’.
Brian Flannery, Provincial Delegate for Education: “We all have a responsibility to challenge inequality at a structural level, to question why some people are poor and others not”.
Eoin Carroll thanked Shane Maher and his class for using the website over the past few weeks to prepare for the launch; Dermot Cowhey and the Crescent for facilitating the launch; Brian Flannery (Provincial Delegate for Education), Helen Barden (Belvedere College) and Frank Clarke (Clongowes College) for their skilled support.
Check out the website at: www.whycare.ie