Our first day of ‘Moving for March’ had St Mary’s staff and students out enjoying the weather but also supporting the Children in Crossfire partnership to help their school projects in Africa.

St Mary’s University College Principal, Professor Peter Finn, and CEO of Children in Crossfire, Richard Moore, launched the 'St Mary’s Moving for March to support Children in Crossfire’ challenge. Also pictured are St Mary’s Students' Union President, Colin Sheehan, along with St Mary’s students Oisin McClafferty, Lucy Robinson and Shanna Cassidy.

Children in Crossfire is a charity based in Derry that was founded in 1996 by Richard Moore. As a young boy in 1972, Richard lost his sight as he walked home from school after a British soldier fired a rubber bullet hitting him on the face and causing him permanent blindness.

Richard was on hand this week – along with Professor Peter Finn from St Mary's University College – to launch ‘St Mary’s Moving for March to support Children in Crossfire’ challenge.

Richard spoke about his relationship with the college and the cause they are supporting, “I have an excellent partnership with St Mary’s," he said, "I’m very good friends with Peter Finn and John Brolly.

“It was last year I was invited to speak at the Commencement Cermony. I suggested about more involvement with our charity and they said they would be delighted to make more events happen."

It is the first official public event that St Mary’s and Children in Crossfire have announced. The plans are that students will fundraise during their more active commutes to the college. Both sides are very excited, with Students' Union president, Colin Sheehan, promoting the campaign.

Children in Crossfire works across the globe. Their focus is on helping improve the lives of vulnerable children that are living in dangerous war zones. The charity mainly supports projects in Ethiopia and Tanzania by helping and building primary schools, hospitals, and funding equipment. These countries have some of the most vulnerable children in the world and Children in Crossfire make it their mission to help them.

Richard added: “Recently, Ethiopia has been hit with a terrible war. We have a girl in our care who was put on a bus by her daddy and fled to Addis Ababa arriving with a note that the driver had which said, 'Help this girl'. Her whole family sadly died soon after due to the ongoing war.”

As a result of the amazing work that Children in Crossfire do this young girl has been taken into their care and placed in a school in Addis Ababa.

St Mary’s University College Principal, Prof Peter Finn KSG, stated:

“We were delighted that Richard Moore was our guest speaker at the Liberal Arts Commencement ceremony back in June 2022 and now we can contribute to his great work. This initiative allows our current student body to proudly support Children in Crossfire by engaging as a community during the month of March when they are out on School Experience or Work Related Learning as they take part in daily exercise.”

With the help of St Mary's University College, future teachers are helping to fund schools, which – although they may be a thousand miles away – is something which is very close to their hearts.