June 12th is World Day Against Child Labour

Approximately 218 million children worldwide are involved in child labour. That is about 14% of 5 to 17 year olds globally, or roughly one in seven children. It is simply too many.

To raise awareness of the issue, and to promote schooling as the right alternative, Concern has launched www.tinypickers.com, the website of a fictional company which is being investigated due to their suspected use of child labour.

As Concern’s site explains:

‘Concern's Stop Child Labour campaign wants you to help give children back their childhood and give them the opportunity to go to school.

So next time you pick up a bar of chocolate, a pack of coffee, or a cotton t-shirt, ask your retailer if the product contains traces of child labour.

Because at the end of the day, any product made using child labour, no matter what it looks like or what price it is, will leave a bad taste in your mouth’


It is an innovative campaign, and certainly one very powerful message.

Launch of Suas Alumni

Greeted by the vibrant drumming of Happy City Samba Band, over 250 guests packed into Dublin’s City Hall last week for Suas’ Alumni inaugural event. ‘From Aspiration to Action’ was held to honour the achievements of Suas since its inception five years ago, and crucially, to engage more people in helping to make Suas’ vision a reality.

Speakers included Colman Farrel, Suas’ current CEO, and Mary Davis, CEO of Special Olympics Ireland, both of whom acknowledged the importance of young people in helping to create a more inclusive society.

An exhibition (put together by myself) accompanied the evening. To view images from the event click here. You can read Suas’ news item about the event here.

Next on the Suas Alumni calendar is the annual St. Patrick’s Facepainting fundraiser. The challenge has been set to beat last year’s €32,000 record. To find out more, and to get involved, check out www.suas.ie… the more the merrier!

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/

Flights and Landings

Quite a lot has happened in the last year. I am now in Dublin, writing up, and looking at ways to develop this project further. Exciting times ahead!

By following the archive links in this blog you can still read through my travels

April 2006: Ireland
May 2006: Ireland, Kenya
June 2006: Kenya, Uganda
July 2006: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique
August 2006: Mozambique, South Africa
September 2006: India
October 2006: India
November 2006: Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia
December 2006: Cambodia, Vietnam
January 2007: Australia, New Zealand
February 2007: New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa
March 2007: United States
April 2007: United States, Ireland
May 2007: Ireland.

I will be keeping this blog alive with periodic updates, and you can still contact me at

exceptional.lives (at) gmail.com