The Director of the MSC Mission Support Centre, Fr. Michael O’Connell, lent his support recently to a linking ceremony between Douglas Community School in Cork and Cardinal Nsubuga Secondary School in Uganda under the WorldWise programme. The ceremony took place in Cork and was attended by two teachers from Uganda, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michéal Martin, T.D., and by Ronan Barry of the Irish Missionary Union. These schools have had a relationship for the past three years.  The linking was initiated by Dr. Margo O Sullivan who is from Cork and works for UNICEF in Uganda

WorldWise is the Irish Aid Schools Linking and Immersion Scheme. It aims to raise awareness of development issues among Irish students, teachers and the wider community, and to heighten interest in and relevance of development education within the post-primary curriculum.  WorldWise provides funding to second-level schools and colleges that are involved in immersion and linking projects with partner schools or organisations in developing countries.  Douglas Community School received funding for visits by Irish teachers to Uganda and now by Ugandan teachers to Ireland. It has also received significant project funding to enable the beginning of Development Education in Douglas Community School and to facilitate the linking.  

Cardinal Nsubuga Secondary School is a voluntary Catholic secondary school, located in Lugazi near Jinja, the second city of Uganda.  It is of similar size to Douglas Community School with approx. 500 students.   Similar to the situation throughout Africa, a lot of the students have been orphaned by HIV / AIDS and many of them are boarders.   It is a mixed school.  The local parish priest in Lugazi is Father Tom Smith – a native of Co. Tipperary - who helped a lot with the linking. 

Based on his experience of the work of MSC missionaries in southern Africa, Fr. O’Connell praised the linking programme as a valuable creation of awareness amongst Irish students some of whom may decide to volunteer at a later stage in mission countries. “It is a good means of keeping alive the tradition of Irish missionaries and volunteers going overseas to give support and encouragement to the poorest of the poor. We know from students using our website for project research purposes that there is considerable interest amongst students in development work overseas” he said.

Fr. O'Connell with the Minister and teachers at the ceremony in Douglas Community School