Some 26 undergraduates who spent the summer volunteering in India were congratulated for their selflessness by the President, Mrs McAleese, yesterday.
The students were the first group to travel to Calcutta to work as teaching assistants with disadvantaged children under the auspices of Suas, a newly-formed development group. The group has also set up a partnership with a school in a shanty town of Nairobi in Kenya.
Suas grew from a St Vincent de Paul group in Trinity College, Dublin and now encourages involvement from all students.
Mr Philip Reagan, who works with the group, said more than 60 students would be volunteering their services abroad next year, and he hoped the number would have increased to 100 by 2005.
"We see this as something that could make quite a difference in Irish society," he said. "It could have quite an impact on issues such as racism."
"The experience volunteers get in developing countries is a life-transforming experience which makes them also much better employees. They become much more mature and rounded people as a result of the experience," said Mr Reagan.
In its first year of operation, Suas raised €350,000 towards the education of 2,400 children in India and Kenya. It is planning to launch development courses in Trinity and UCthis year. The courses will be open to all university students.
