YOUNG PEOPLE’S ideas on how to make the roads safer, tackle scams and make sexual education more accessible were exhibited in Dublin yesterday.
Protecting the environment, coping with suicide and combating poverty were other topics addressed by 3,500 students who attended the Young Social Innovators (YSI) showcase in the RDS. The event, which encourages students to change the world for good, saw 5,500 young people undertaking 400 social projects around the country this year. One of the projects, Scambusters, carried out by students of the Stella Maris Secondary School in Tramore, Co Waterford, attempted to prove that the proceeds of many charity clothes collections do not go where we think. “Most of the stickers that come in through your door advertising charity clothes donations are fake,” Ruth Lawlor, a group member, said. “We realised there were a lot of these stickers coming in and it was impossible they were all legitimate. Many of them had bad grammar, used mobile numbers rather than having an office base and didn’t have charity numbers.” “There are business people who take these clothes and sell them in foreign countries where they get around €40 a bag.
“They’re making a fortune but the charities are losing out.”