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Lucan Gazette, 6th May 2007
LUCAN man Ciaran Stewart has just returned from working with GOAL in tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka. He worked as a team leader in a EUR20m relief effort that has resulted in 65 schools being built in just 15 months. "It had been on my mind to do that kind of work for a couple of years. I was working with Eircom up until mid-2004. I did a round-the-world trip for a year, and [the charity work] was part of the grand scheme," Stewart told the Gazette.
"GOAL was the one organisation I was thinking of working with. The perception I had was that they give better value for money than other NGOs."
Stewart was part of the team, whose mission it was to get 35,000 children back in the classroom by December 2006.
Originally, he was responsible for the scheme's accountancy needs, before being given the human resources area to oversee. Ultimately, he landed the job as team leader, in a country roughly the size of Ireland.
"This challenge left us with just 15 months to get the job done," said Ciaran. "Once the work began, it came to symbolise the drive to return this shattered society to normality."
The GOAL team, made up of expatriate engineers, architects, construction workers and local labourers, worked around the clock in shifts to complete their work.
On the second anniversary of the tsunami, Stewart and his team opened "a bridge, a fisheries building and one of our schools. It was days like that that would give you the strength to go on and leave you with a buzz for days after. You go along and see this fabulous new building, and all the kids excited about their schools.
"At GOAL you are not pigeon holed by virtue of profession, and you get to do satisfying work in difficult and challenging environments.
"When you have experienced such poverty and deprivation first-hand, you look around the wealth of Ireland and you re-prioritise what is important," he said. |
