RITE & REASON: A unique initiative by a priest, staff and students at an Irish third-level college shows how the abandoned of Africa can be helped die with dignity. Malachy Conlon explains
Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) has been exploring the possibility of new forms of partnerships that challenge the thinking of "traditional" education and which may expand a tightly technological emphasis to a more holistic and person-centred approach.
Having made a hugely significant contribution to the development of the economy in Ireland, the IT sector must now move forward towards the creation of a new vision for third-level education in this country, taking its place in developing education in a broader European and global context.
Almost two years ago, a group of staff and students at DKIT set up a project that sought to develop a dialogue with a community in South Africa. It was hoped to establish some form of partnership with the developing world. Underdevelopment has strangled large areas of Africa and the HIV/AIDS pandemic has made any kind of creative thinking almost impossible there.
Nevertheless, the outreach by DKIT African Aid to the Diocese of Tzaneen, in the Limpopo province, is gaining momentum and has the potential to make an apparently small, but significant, contribution to development in this area, which was chosen primarily because of the extent of poverty there. With a combination of staff and students involved in this effort, there are already signs that such a partnership could impact very positively on this impoverished part of the globe.
In the face of the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS and poverty, community leaders welcome assistance but more importantly, welcome the ongoing relationship that assists those at the cutting edge of development. People who work amongst the poorest of the poor believe a DKIT African Aid-style partnership is the only way forward.
From the outset, the DKIT African Aid team members were insistent that the notion of partnership was central to the project, rather than fund-raising. In a relatively short period, this project has made a significant impact on the ground. The provision of a Mobile Medical Unit, which enables medication to be brought to people in remote villages, was the first expression of commitment.
Since then, supporting a home-based medical care programme has assisted hundreds of people who would have died anonymously otherwise. In another area, local women identified a source of water in the Drakensberg mountains. Supported by DKIT African Aid, these women dug the 14km trench and laid the pipe to bring water to two remote villages.
Evidence that young Irish people are generous was clear as a group lived in this community last summer and worked with the local people assisting in the listening process necessary to develop this unique project. The core group of organisers at DKIT African Aid, anxious to support this kind of youthful generosity and to express their commitment to their partners in Tzaneen, have recently finalised the purchase of a farm in the area and are currently exploring ways in which the farm could be used as a base for development education.
The frightening fact that one in four of the people of this area dies from HIV/AIDS fuels this group to be engaged both in the provision of adequate facilities for people to die in dignity but also to look at meaningful ways in which DKIT African Aid might be involved in sustainable development projects.
It is clear that this has been an energising experience for all involved. This apparent drop in the ocean is significant. Such "drops" of imagination and creativity should be encouraged and allowed to lubricate the often stiff thinking in many academic circles. Having reared the now limping Celtic Tiger, perhaps it is timely that the IT sector take a lead from this initiative.
Development education has a crucial role to play in enlarging public understanding of development issues, both global and local. It seeks to challenge attitudes which perpetuate poverty and injustice and, through education, to empower people to work towards more equal development.
This project offers an opportunity for the IT sector to explore a more effective education system that stimulates greater public interest in these issues and could contribute greatly to a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of poverty and underdevelopment.
The partnership now developing between DKIT African Aid and the Tzaneen area is an interesting one and has the potential to make a significant contribution to development both in Ireland and in an impoverished area of South Africa.
• Father Malachy Conlon is leader of the DKIT African Aid project and Catholic chaplain at the Dundalk Institute of Technology. He can be contacted at malachy.conlon@dkit.ie