What is the Enactus World Cup?

Students from the University of Limerick (UL) are representing Ireland on the global stage this week at the Enactus World Cup. This social entrepreneurship competition brings together students from across 32 countries who are creating inspiring projects to make a real impact in the world.

The team from UL were crowned winners of the Irish national competition in May of this year, after competing against 10 other Irish Universities.

While normally held in a participant country, the Enactus World Cup is once again being held virtually. It began yesterday (Thursday 14th October) and will run for a week.

Waterford student Rachel Kingston part of the team

Rachel Kingston from Lismore, Co. Waterford said:

“To represent UL on a global level in my second year is astonishing, it is so rewarding to see the work that we have put in over the past year being recognised. Our success this year only makes Enactus UL’s future more exciting”

What is the UL project for Enactus

The UL Enactus team will present their project Anytime of the Month, which has been making huge ground here in Ireland to achieve period justice. They'll also present Moyo Nua, a project that developed agricultural seeding planters for smallholder farmers in Africa.

Anytime of the Month, since its launch in September 2020, has achieved a significant amount in its work to tackle period poverty and period stigma. The enterprise works with 21 third level institutions across Ireland and the UK while also providing a menstrual health education programme to secondary schools across Ireland. The team is also working with companies nationwide to remove the stigma in the workplace and has expanded into sports, recently partnering with the Camogie Association.

Moyo Nua provides programmes and products to smallholder farmers in developing nations to improve agricultural productivity.

What happens at the event?

In the opening round, team Ireland will compete in League 8 against Ukraine, South Africa, Morocco and Zimbabwe. The team will find out on Tuesday October 19th if they will progress to the semi-final. The winning country will be crowned Enactus World Champions 2021 on Thursday at 4pm through a virtual presentation.

As well as Lismore's Rachel Kingston, the presenting team representing UL and Ireland consists of Catriona O’Halloran, Jack O’Connor, Sikhulekile Ruth Ndlovu and Katie Coughlan.