A Week In GOAL, by Transition Year Student Dean Ó Súilleabháin

My name is Dean Ó Súilleabháin and I’m a TY student in Coláiste Eoin. As part of my TY course I came to GOAL for a week of work experience. Before coming to GOAL I always loved to see the great work that they were doing in so many different countries and wanted to get involved. During this week I worked a lot with fundraising, and sat in on the weekly meeting where they spoke about the progress of all the work happening in each country, it was very interesting.

The week really helped me realise how much more I wanted to get involved with a charity such as GOAL. I now understand how much work is done behind the scenes even just for simple things like posting out the GOAL Mile packs, or what to say in the News Letter sent out every month. I would love to mix my passion for film making and charity work and make a career out of it. I wouldn’t mind traveling around the world and put together a short film to show what it’s really like living in a developing country.

In September 2015 I emailed GOAL about an idea I had at 12am one night to raise money for the Syrian Refugees, a sponsored walk and every day until the walk we were emailing each other to insure that I made the most out of the day. GOAL very kindly sent out t-shirts, buckets and posters for me to use. The reasoning behind the walk was that the refugees had so far to walk that I thought it only fair that we walked with them and for them. On the day I raised almost €1,500 and was so amazed to see how far a little idea can go.

This year I intend to go bigger by organising another walk, but this time it will be called ‘7 Mountains 7 Days’, where I intend to climb the 7 highest mountains in Ireland in 7 days with my dad and two friends. I do hope to get as much help as I can with this as it is the hardest thing I’ve had to organise but the outcome will be amazing if it goes to plan. The money I raise will hopefully once again help those suffering in Syria because I feel that it is unfair that I get to go home everyday after school to a hot dinner and a nice warm bed where I can go on my phone or watch TV, while there are people my age living in a tent after being torn out of their village with no proper food or a warm bed to sleep on in Syria.

I would just like to thank GOAL for this amazing experience, it really has opened my eyes and helped me understand the work that I can do to help in the future and even now.