It may start off as just another part of the transition-year curriculum, but volunteering can change your life, reports Gráinne Faller

Between community work, volunteering and raising money for charity, transition-year students make a huge contribution to society. At the very least it is satisfying work and a positive entry on your CV. For some people, however, voluntary work changes their lives. It can shape their school career or their ambitions for the future. We spoke to students around the country for whom voluntary work is a huge part of their TY experience.

GET OFF YOUR REAR AND VOLUNTEER

Much is made of the fact that young people have very little to do before they turn 18. For many, hanging around street corners and drinking illegally in fields is par for the course. Students at St Paul's Secondary School in Oughterard, Co Galway, are not so sure that there is nothing better for them to do. Sick of young people's reputation for being layabouts and wasters, the transition-year class decided to explore ways in which young people can both occupy themselves and be of some help to society. "Young people have a reputation for being lazy, but we're really not," says Emily Halpin, a transition-year student.

They decided to see how much voluntary work they could do in the town as part of the Young Social Innovators competition. The project, entitled Get Off Your Rear and Volunteer, has led students to become far more involved in the community in Oughterard.

It wasn't always easy, as student Katy Conneely explains. "To start with, we wrote 15 or 16 letters to different groups, offering our services as volunteers. We got four responses, and three of those said no." The local tourist office was the only organisation to take the students up on their offer, asking them to distribute local telephone directories. Discouraged but not disheartened, the students looked elsewhere for work that they could do.

"We had a cake sale for the hospice and raised €111," says Katy. "A group has gone out today collecting litter for the Tidy Towns competition." "Some people are coaching under-nines and under-12s basketball," says Emily. "I go up every Friday to an after-school club from 4pm until 6pm. We help the children with their homework, we play soccer and games, and we do things like art and craft." Other students in Emily's year volunteer at the club on different days.

The list of work goes on and on, and many of the students intend to continue with it even when the YSI project finishes. "A lot of students who were hanging around with nothing to do actually joined the town's youth-cafe committee," says Katy. "There were a lot of adults on that committee, and the addition of the teenagers really seems to be working out." "The aim of the project was to get young people involved in the community," says Emily. "It has worked out really well."

The Young Social Innovators website is www.youngsocialinnovators.ie.

AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE

Sometimes a volunteering effort can go much farther than you could imagine. Cousins Ciara Jones and Sophie Harkin had no idea how far their transition-year ambition would take them. "We just decided we wanted to do something worthwhile in transition year," says Ciara. "Our grandad's sister is a nun, and she has been working in Africa for 40 years. Our mums suggested that we could go over to her in Zambia as volunteers, so we decided to raise funds before we went."

The girls decided to organise a ladies' lunch a the yacht club in Sutton, Co Dublin. "We had a nun there who came from the mission where we would be working," explains Ciara. "She talked about where we'd be going and what we'd be doing. People were very generous. I think it was because they knew the money was going directly to the people in need. They weren't paying for us to go over or anything."

After the success of the lunch, the girls wanted to raise awareness within their college, St Dominic's High School, Santa Sabina, in Sutton, north Dublin, about what they were doing. "We decided to have a cake sale," says Sophie. "It was a really busy week in school that week, so we ended up baking everything ourselves, but it was great."

The response took them completely by surprise. "We were thinking that we'd raise a maximum of €8,000 in all," says Sophie. "After the lunch and the cake sale we had €14,000, and people just kept dropping money into us." Much to their delight, they ended up with €20,000. "It only takes a couple of euro to send a child to school for a year in Zambia," says Sophie. "That kind of money goes a long way out there."

Last September, after the fundraising drive, Sophie and Ciara went to Zambia. Their grand-aunt Sr Máire O'Brien has set up a home-care centre in Lusaka for children who have been orphaned by HIV/Aids. "We taught in the playschool there," says Sophie. "It was quite hard because of the language barrier. They were so affectionate, though. They'd fight over who got to hold even a finger on our hands."

One day they took 50 children with HIV/Aids to a fun park, funded by €400 from the cake sale. "It was amazing to see how excited the kids were by the clean water in the pool there; they had never seen it before," says Ciara. "They were so grateful and well behaved, and it was amazing to see how the older siblings took care of the younger ones. It was one of the highlights of the trip."

Sophie says: "Another day we went out to a hospital in the bush. They had nothing there. Their incubators consisted of a hot water bottle and some cotton wool. There were no machines, nothing."

Ciara adds: "HIV and Aids is such a huge issue as well. If people are lucky enough to get the antiretroviral drugs they probably don't have the good nutrition that you need in order for them to work properly."

The girls' fortnight in Zambia made a huge impression, but the experience wasn't over. A teacher who works with the children's charity Barnardos decided to nominate the girls for the Helping Hands awards for young volunteers.

"We wrote an essay about our experience in Zambia," says Ciara. "We were shortlisted and invited to a lunch where the awards were being given out. President Mary McAleese came in and named third prize and second prize. We weren't expecting anything, but when she came to first prize she said 'winners', plural. Then she said 'cousins'. We were pale with shock by this stage. We had won. It was really amazing."

Ciara and Sophie are still accepting donations for Sr O'Brien's work in Zambia. E-mail frangen@iol.ie

GENERATION GAP?

For fifth-year students Bill Olden and Bryan Reidy, community work they did in transition year has had a big impact on their school lives.

Having spent two weeks working for the Westgate Foundation, which provides sheltered housing, services and activities for its elderly clients in Ballincollig, Co Cork, Bill became very interested in social work. "I was a nervous wreck on my first day," says Bill. "It was brilliant, though. The old people were great fun. Activities changed from day to day. Poker was fun. They were mad for the gambling!"

Bryan spent his two weeks at a local nursing home. "I'd talk to people and bring them to lunch or to and from physio," he says. "It really had a lasting effect on me. You always presume that all old people are like your grandparents, baking scones and all that, but this showed me that old people can be vulnerable."

The boys are students at Presentation Brothers College in Cork, and the school is very involved in Students Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly (Share). Founded by Br Jerome Kelly, a former principal of the school, in 1970, the project provides sheltered housing and services. As well as visiting clients in the centre, fifth-year students form a fundraising executive each year to organise a big financial drive each Christmas. The campaign is crucial to the running of the organisation.

Bill says: "When I handed up my report about my experience during transition year, my teacher said that Share would be ideal for me. I threw my name into the mix of people who wanted to be on the fundraising executive. My name was picked out, and I was thrilled."

Bryan and Bill were both chosen for the Share leadership team. Bill was elected its chairman, with Bryan as his deputy. Having experienced the caring end of social work in the previous year, the students were thrown into the administrative side, organising visiting rotas in the six Share complexes and ensuring clients were satisfied with their care.

Most of the work came from organising the fundraising drive. Nine days of collecting on the streets of Cork took a lot of preparation. The committee had to co-ordinate volunteers from schools around Cork. "We had 1,800 people collecting for us," says Bill. "It was completely exhausting." The money will mainly go towards refurbishing the Share complexes.

"We made friends with people who we wouldn't even meet in normal circumstances," says Bryan. "It was great fun. We were running around Cork on Christmas Eve, collecting money, trying to evoke a bit of sympathy. It was brilliant."

"It was so rewarding," adds Bill. "I'd certainly like to work in this sector. It was well worth all the effort."

For more details about Share, see www.sharecork.org