Hundreds of students from schools across the southeast gathered in the SETU arena for the annual Young St. Vincent De Paul programme.
Schools from across the region partake in fundraising events throughout the year to assist people in need at a local community level.
The event culminated all the work throughout the year, with each school presenting their work.
St. Vincent De Paul Regional Co-Ordinator for the South-East, David O'Neill, was present at the event and says he is delighted to be back in person after 4 years.
"Today is the SVP annual event for the SVP Young programme, and it has been 2019 since we held our last event due to being interrupted by COVID.
"It's is great to be back and this year [with] over 20 schools from the southeast region ranging from Laois, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow, and Waterford.
Over 350 students were present, with activities taking place throughout the day to mark the special occasion.
David continued to say raising awareness for people in need is forefront when it comes to people in need, with Waterford continuing the tradition for over a decade.
"It brings social awareness among young people [and] one of the teachers from the De La Salle programme in Waterford joined back in 2014, and they have really taken it on [through] fundraising, particularly around Christmas time [via] a weekly programme tailored to each school."
Student Involvement
Hannah and Eve from the Mercy Secondary School in Waterford spoke to WLR about the continued work being done each week in their school for SVP.
"We are here to show off what we have done throughout the year and get to know the other schools and gain some inspiration," Hannah said," I think these events are very significant because they raise awareness about how strong the struggle is in the community.
"For us, it has definitely opened up our eyes to the problems that are out there [and] I didn't realise how bad some of the homelessness problems are in Ireland until I got involved in this, but being able to organise these events by raising money has been gratifying."
Eve told us about some of the events that take place throughout the year to raise funds for the charity and says the work will continue.
"We did a lot of bakesales and bucket collections, so we were very involved with the community and with our local schools informing them about SVP, [and] I think we are definitely going to continue working for SVP and helping those in need."
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