Youth Work Ireland Tipperary spearhead Getting Real About Poverty campaign

Members of Youth Work Ireland Tipperary junior board of management took action last week from October 14-18 by spearheading a campaign called Getting Real About Poverty.

The Getting Real About Poverty campaign was planned to tie in with UN World Food Day, which is a day of action dedicated to tackling global hunger on Wednesday, October 16, and UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Thursday, October 17.

There are over 820 million people that don’t have enough to eat including the 100,000 young people in Ireland living in consistent poverty, and UN World Food Day aims to highlight this.

The young people of Youth Work Ireland Tipperary challenged a number of their Youth Workers to Get Real About Poverty by living on €2 a day for 3-5 days! By running workshops with young people and by sharing it on social media the young people and workers involved wanted to raise awareness and give people a greater understanding about the reality of Poverty in 2019 both in Tipperary and globally.

It’s uncomfortable but true that the person standing next to you on the street may literally not know where their next meal is coming from. It’s also true that children go to school hungry, your neighbour may be going to sleep hungry, and that the person passing you in their car may have skipped breakfast because they had nothing in the fridge. Hunger can be a local as well as an international problem.

"It is important initiative because poverty is real, consequences have a lifelong effect on children’s physical, mental and social development and hunger and poverty are harming young people and their families – is having an impact on our societies, economies and future generations," said Cora Horgan Youth Work Ireland Tipperary CEO. “Raising awareness is just the first step in tackling hunger and poverty – we want to empower our young people to realise it exists and when they can do something to help, to step up.”

Aaron Ryan Gibson, age 17, a junior board member who also took on the Getting Real About Poverty challenge said, "As day 4 ends I am going to admit I am struggling but I am not giving up not for a minute! No child should have to go to bed or school hungry and something needs to be done to stop poverty in Ireland and worldwide."

“It also really important to the highlight the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a road map for change and difference that we can all make - hunger is on the rise when at the same time more than 1 billion tonne of food is wasted every year and we encourage all the young people involved in Youth Work Ireland Tipperary to play their part helping addressing inequality and making the world a better place for everyone and planet itself” said Cate O’Connor Youth Work Ireland Tipperary Youth Worker Glocal 2019 co-ordinator.

Youth Work Ireland Tipperary’s core aim is the social, personal and educational development of young people by giving them opportunities to try out new activities, make decisions and exercise responsibility.

Geographically, there are three regions under the remit of Youth Work Ireland Tipperary - Tipperary South, Tipperary North, and East Limerick, with six Youth Centres in Cashel, Fethard, Killenaule, Templemore, Thurles and Tipperary.