Social Entrepreneurs on South East Radio

Just to let you know that I will be talking about Social Entrepreneurship on South East Radio (Ireland), 95.6- 96.4, this coming Saturday 3rd November. The show goes out after the morning ten o’ clock news.

http://www.southeastradio.ie/

Social Entrepreneur Ireland Awards…

It has been a busy few months since returning to Ireland; writing the book ‘One Wild Life’- an account of my travels for the last year. It profiles some of the inspiring social entrepreneurs I met along the way and includes snippets of travelogue and a selection of photos. After many an hour in a library, I'm happy to say the book is really taking shape.

Since returning I’ve also been given one of the Social Entrepreneur Ireland Level One awards this year- with gratitude. The award is in recognition of my work to date and particularly my plan to share the stories of social entrepreneurs with young people in Ireland. An Award ceremony is taking place tomorrow evening in Dublin.

I'll also be speaking on the Pat Kenny Radio show tomorrow morning- about the awards and my travels. I’ll be interviewed along with Bob Seward, one of the people who I met in Cork, and Rotemi Adebari, the first Black mayor in Ireland, and another interviewee. Tune in at around 10.30am RTE Radio 1. It is usually me doing the interviews- so this is an interesting turn of events!

Responses, comments or queries can be sent to
onewildlife@gmail.com

WDYDWYD?

‘Why do you do what you do?’

This was a question posed to Tony Deifell one of the people I met on my travels while passing through California.

Tony, a photographer and social entrepreneur- and not usually not short of words, found the question so powerful that he struggled for a response. Realising the strength of the question, Tony decided to create a photography project capturing other people’s responses. It has taken him around the states, but never to Ireland. So I decided carry the baton and take the question here- starting with some of the awardees from this year’s Social Entrepreneur Ireland’s group.

You can view responses on my flickr account; www.flickr.com/photos/cmulvany

If you want to join in, you can post your response to www.wdydwyd.com

Volunteer Programme- another year on

For those of you who have been following this blog- and my own journey, you will have heard me mention the organisation Suas (www.suas.ie) on more than one occasion. I still feel the air time is justified. Much of my own learning about social change issues started out when I was running the Suas Volunteer Programme a few years back. It was meeting young people interested in making a difference through Suas, and meeting Suas’ partners in India and Kenya, which got me started on the ‘Exceptional Lives’ Journey; and I own a huge amount to the people behind it.

The volunteer programme has since grown from strength to strength- and last weekend saw this year’s 80 volunteer’s gather for a weekend of celebration, and reflection, on their experiences of working in education projects in India and Kenya this summer. The volunteer programme is a powerful experience in the life of a young adult- being exposed to grassroots development issues, learning about a new culture, and working as a team under often difficult circumstances.

I was lucky enough to be able to join in- and put together an exhibition of photos at the annual return reception, this year held in Maynooth College. Below are a few images;

(For those of you who may be interested in applying for the ’08 programme, applications will be open from Nov of this year. Check out www.suas.ie for updates).