Building and medical team brings hope to Uganda; Rapturous welcome for Connor team in Mongo; A picture of shared ministry with the Methodist Church; Media review – Male youth suicide rates among the highest in Europe; Schools to extend action on cyberbullies; Sexualisation of children fuels sex crime rise
Building and medical team brings hope to Uganda
Representatives from six different parishes in the Diocese of Down and Dromore are on the latest Hope Builders trip to Uganda. A group of forty–eight flew out of Dublin early in the early hours of Friday morning 18 January with parishioners from Kilkeel, Annalong, St Finnian’s, Ballywalter, Knocknamuckley and Aghalee among them.
Hope Builders founder, David Charleton, is leading the group whose aim is to build classrooms and dormitories for the school at Nakasangola and some dwellings for a nearby orphanage. Among the team are a doctor and a nurse and they will hold clinics whilst the building is going on.
Despite a difficult journey, the group have arrived safely and are hard at work
Rapturous welcome for Connor team in Mongo
The people of Mongo village gave the Connor Yei team a rapturous welcome when they visited on Monday January 21.
The eight–strong team travelled in two landcruisers from their base in Yei town to the village, 16 miles down a rutted dust road. Improvements have been made at the Mongo end of the road, however, and so the bone shaking journey took just over an hour each way, rather than the two hours experienced by previous teams. The journey ended at the track leading to Mongo Primary School, built with donations from parishes and individual in Connor Diocese, and opened by a Connor team in July 2010. There, pupils, teachers, clergy and elders were singing and dancing to welcome their guests. They visitors joined this musical procession as it wound its way down the lane to the school, where the Connor team and Bishop Hilary of Yei were welcomed by Archdeacon Jackson of Mongo. They were than given refreshments in a large tukul. or payot, before joining the party where speaker after speaker, including a pupil of Mongo primary school, expressed their thanks for the wonderful school the people of Connor had given the people of Mongo.
A picture of shared ministry with the Methodist Church
The Dock church in Belfast features in a new video produced by Slingshot Creations, celebrating the work of Methodist churches engaging with their communities. The
Chaplain Chris Bennett states, “A little bit of background: Des, who introduces the video, was the very first person from another denomination to believe in The Dock’s vision of a shared church – and made it possible for Karen, who features in the video, to become the first Chaplain to join me in the (now–ever–expanding) team. Karen’s church, Sydenham Methodist, was then the first congregation to really get involved in Dock life – so you’ll see trusty Dock intern Timmy and Knitter (or Joanne as she’s otherwise known) who runs the Dock knitting group.”
http://youtu.be/MUBU3zjDpuQ
http://vimeo.com/57235151
Male youth suicide rates among the highest in Europe
Independent – The rate of suicide among young men in Ireland is one of the highest in Europe, a major new report has warned.
An estimated 165 young men took their own lives in the Republic in 2011 – out of a total of 525 suicides – while another 72 young men died by suicide in the North.
The stark statistics are revealed in the first All-Ireland report on young men and suicide which is published today.
The report said: “Although the rate of male suicide in Ireland is relatively low within the overall EU context, the rate among young males is amongst the highest in the EU.
“The recent spike in suicide rates among young males in both Northern Ireland and the Republic coincides with the economic downturn and increasing levels of unemployment.”
The report, from the Men’s Health Forum of Ireland, warns there are no quick fix solutions but there is no time for inertia or complacency. It said the two key factors known to be effective in reducing suicide rates are educating GPs in the recognition and treatment of depression and restricting access to lethal means of harm. More at –
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/male-youth-suicide-rates-among-the-highest-in-europe-3362580.html
Background information on suicide rates
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/headlines/suicide-rate-among-highest-in-europe-1-4708155
Schools to extend action on cyberbullies
Examiner – Vocational schools are to be told they must act on cyberbullying by students even if it happens outside school hours.
Under new rules on cyberbullying being finalised by the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA), every school’s policies should state clearly that all bullying comes under its authority if it is done by a member of the school community and impinges on a student’s work or happiness. Crucially, it says, this would apply even where the bullying is done outside the school.
The 250 vocational schools and community colleges run by the vocational education committees, for which the IVEA is an umbrella body, should also have the right to discipline students who bully other members of the school community, even when not at school. In addition, the proposed rules would require schools to:
*Survey students regularly to find out levels of bullying and, as much as possible, those most affected;
*Organise safe internet awareness days or similar events;
*Oblige students or staff to notify the school if they come across cyberbullying on, for example, Facebook or other sites;
*Remind teachers about keeping their Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts private and avoiding direct connection with students online;
*Provide information for parents to help them understand cyberbullying, but also seek parents’ views on bullying in the school;
*Address cyberbullying in social, personal and health education (SPHE) and in relationships and sexuality education (RSE);
*Include specific reference to cyberbullying in acceptable use policies for school internet use. More at –
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/schools-to-extend-action-on-cyberbullies-220402.html
Schools ordered to get tough on bullying epidemic
Independent – Schools in the Repubic will have to keep a formal record of bullying incidents for the first time under a groundbreaking initiative to combat the scourge.
Patterns of bullying will be tracked and schools will be obliged to react under the first shake-up of bullying guidelines in 20 years.
The Department of Education will provide the country’s 4,000 primary and post-primary schools with a report template in which they will be required to document any episodes of bullying and inform the board of management. More at-
Sexualisation of children fuels sex crime rise
Examiner – Sharp increases in sex crimes by juveniles is part of a wider sexualisation of children, according to a leading charity.
Children At Risk in Ireland said society needed to examine if the “pendulum has swung too much” in terms of what was accepted as normal for children in society.
The Irish Examiner reported yesterday that 250 sex crimes were committed by children under 18 in 2011, compared to 195 in 2010 and 74 in 2009.
The figures, contained in a Garda report on juvenile crime, showed that the number of rapes rose from 17 in 2009, to 50 in 2010 and to 85 in 2011. Cases of defilement of a child under 17 increased from 10 in 2010 to 33 in 2011. More at –
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/sexualisation-of-children-fuels-juvenile-sex-crime-rise-220395.html