Two transition-year students who raised €20,000 for children living in extreme poverty in Zambia were rewarded for their volunteer work at a ceremony attended by President Mary McAleese in Dublin yesterday.
Mrs McAleese, who said volunteering is the "most clear hallmark of active citizenship", helped present awards to 15 people at the Barnardos Volunteer Awards and the Barnardos Helping Hands Young Volunteer Awards at the Guinness Storehouse yesterday.
Cousins Ciara Jones and Sophie Harkin, both 16-year-old students at St Dominic's High School, Santa Sabina, in Sutton, Dublin, won first prize in the Helping Hands competition after raising €20,000 for children in Zambia by organising cake sales and a women's lunch.
They also spent two weeks in Lusaka, Zambia, working with their grand-aunt, Sr Marie O'Brien, a missionary with the Franciscan Sisters. James Gannon and Emily Harte were runners-up.
The Barnardos Volunteer of the Year award went to Yuliya Shakhova Bates, a 24-year-old Ukrainian living in Ireland for two years, who has been volunteering with Barnardos's Cork shop since February 2005.