IRISH PEOPLE and “future leaders” in colleges and universities must be encouraged to volunteer during difficult economic times, businessman and charity founder Niall Mellon has said.
Ireland was “hurting” but it was “vital” that current economic circumstances did not deter people from helping communities overseas, the founder of the Niall Mellon Township Trust told students at the annual DCU Volunteering Expo at the Helix, Dublin, yesterday.
He said maintaining Ireland’s global reputation as a charitable nation was important “when the chips are down rather than when the chips are up”. And he assured the audience that volunteering would provide them with an “extra strength” when experiencing personal difficulties in their lives.
Some 60 organisations, ranging from Unicef and Habitat for Humanity to Age Action and the Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership, were represented at the expo.
DCU president, Prof Brian MacCraith, introduced the event saying volunteering was solely about donating yourself to others and paid tribute to the township trust’s work in South Africa.
Mr MacCraith is volunteering on the trust’s annual “building blitz” in Cape Town next month