Fellows and Irish Aid link up in Limerick
Tham Nguyen reflects on a seminar held to strengthen partership links between Study Fellows and Irish Aid and to facilitate information sharing on development strategies.
Minister Jan O’Sullivan T.D. (left) with presenters Tham Nguyen (far right,) Lina Simpson Mbewe (Zambia) and Solomon Bekele (Ethiopia)
Dublin was in spring time with beautiful flowers blossoming everywhere and the sun out until 9pm. I had also finished most of my classes at school and been working for a company project. It was also the time when Irish Aid gathered all fellows who receive scholarships from Irish Aid at its headquarters in Limerick.
At 7am, I was ready at the office of ICOS (Irish Council for International Students). It took us 3 hours by bus to travel from Dublin to Limerick.
This is the second year that Irish Aid has held this event and it hopefully will become an annual event for fellows to meet up with each other and with Irish Aid staff.
The seminar was to discuss key issues in partner countries and the areas Irish Aid is working on: Poverty and Hunger; HIV/AIDS and Health; Development; Environment; and Education. These focuses are delivered by three main programmes: Fellowship, IDEAS and Strategic Cooperation.
I represented IDEAS scholars (Irish Development Experience Sharing Programme), giving a short presentation about my studies in Ireland to other fellows, Irish Aid Staff and the Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O’Sullivan T.D. It was also a chance for me to say thank you to my sponsor and Irish Aid staff who contributed to creating the IDEAS programme.
Moreover, I also had a great time with other fellows coming from Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. They listened and laughed with me for every tiny thing I spoke. After that, they also hugged me, picked me up and complimented me about how passionate I was when I talked about the plane in the sky which used to carry a little girl’s dream; or about how intensive my MBA programme at UCD Smurfit Business School is; or about the environment I had with my MBA classmates.
Last but not least, with these seminars, I know that Irish Aid is trying hard to create the alumni network for Fellows to connect with each other and with Irish Aid when they go back to their home countries. This was an important event to start that connection.
The IDEAS Programme and Vietnam
Irish Aid’s IDEAS Programme aims to share lessons from Ireland’s economic and social development and promote the exchange of knowledge and experience in macro-economic governance. It began in 2009, based on a partnership with UCD’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Each year, up to 10 fellows are supported to study business-related masters’ programmes in Ireland, after which they seek to make a strong contribution to the development of Vietnam’s private sector.