Partnership with Just-One
Project Profile: Just-One (www.just-one.org) has been working at the grass-roots level since 2004. Just-One provides improved access to educational opportunities for disadvantaged children who are otherwise denied such benefits. The three main programs Just One facilitates are counseling and rehabilitation for former street children, educational assistance through the forms of scholarships and school placement, and family support and empowerment. Furthermore, Just-One’s school assistance initiative is being developed along a similar theme of empowerment and sustainability. Through this particular work, Just-One seeks to improve the overall quality of education offered by the schools they work with, rather than merely providing scholarships for the individual children receiving our direct support. By providing assistance in areas such as teacher training and the provision of basic resources and infrastructure, their presence is felt throughout the whole school community and provides benefit to all children in attendance.
Partnership History: Just-One has been an Omprakash partner since February, 2009. Just-One was introduced to the Omprakash network by Sarah Zellweger, and visited soon afterwards by Alan Burns. Sarah and Alan were both recipients of an Omprakash Volunteer Grant. Contact Sarah at sarahzellweger@gmail.com and Alan at alanburns.cork@yahoo.ie to learn more about Just-One.
Needs: Choosing to donate financially to the work of Just-One is certainly one of the easiest ways of helping us to make a difference, but it’s not the only way. The staff of Just-One aims to further develop relationships between people interested in getting involved with their work. Current opportunities for volunteering are somewhat limited but do exist – especially in areas that would directly benefit Just-One’s on-going capacity building and staff training efforts. Teacher training, counselling and therapy, organizational development, administrative support and IT systems are just a few of the specific areas which the dedicated team of local staff working with Just-One are always enthusiastic to learn more about. Any experienced professional who feels his or her specific skill set could be of benefit to Just-One’s continuing efforts is kindly invited to email the founding director, Declan Murphy, at dmurphy*at*just-one*dot*org with a brief proposal detailing the specific skills on offer and how these could be successfully shared with the Just-One team.