The venue for the course was GMIT- a third level institution that proudly boasts being a Green Campus.
Twenty participants took part in the enlightening course, 12 from the host country and 8 visiting participants from Spain, Portugal, Greece and Austria. The participants brought a wealth of knowledge to the training from their own diverse experiences and the trainers used their facilitation skills to ensure this knowledge was captured.
The first day of the course involved a presentation and site visit of Swift Conservation Ireland. Swift Conservation Ireland is a volunteer led initiative. The swift is on the amber list of birds of conservation concern in Ireland because its population has declined by over 40% in the last 15 years. Conservation actions across the country are help to recover populations. GMIT campus, the location of the training course have a monitoring station there so participants on the course got to see first-hand the work that is being done to save these birds. The founder of Swift Conservation Ireland shared with the participants, why she started her organisation and the daily struggles and success she encounters.
Day 2-5 of the course involved the sharing of techniques on starting and managing both environmental and social NGO’s. Examples of both national and international NGO’s were examined and the participants engaged in in-depth discussions, whilst also investigating their own ideas for NGO’s.
A critical part of the training course is the networking among partner countries and participants on this course engaged very well and created strong links with watch other and engaged in discussion how they can support each other on other projects.
