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Winners of the 2012 Irish Aid Science for Development Award at this year's BT Young Scientists Exhibition, Keane Nolan and DJ Hanley are pictured with their Science teacher Aileen Tennant (left) and Self Help Africa's Patsy Toland, at the event.

Carlow teenagers win 2012 'Science for Development Award'

Two 15 year old teenagers who looked at the role that milk could play in combatting poverty in rural Africa were named winners of the Self Help Africa organised 'Science for Development Award', at the annual BT Young Scientists Exhibition in Dublin.

Keane Nolan and DJ Hanley, from St. Mary's Academy CBS, Carlow, became the seventh winner of the Irish Aid sponsored prize when their study on the nutritional contents of raw and pasteurised milk was

selected by the adjudicators for the €5,000 annual bursary.

Minister of State for Development and Trade Joe Costello, T.D., presented the award, and paid tribute to the young winners for their innovative and valuable study.

The Minister said that the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition had played an invaluable role in encouraging Ireland's young people to realise their potential as innovators and inventors, and added that the 'Science for Development Award' encouraged Irelands young people to think about the challenges facing others in the Developing World.

'From my visits around the exhibition hall today I have been particularly inspired by the number of schools harnessing the power of science for use in the developing world. Meeting so many students who are applying their scientific and technical knowledge for the purpose of improving the lives of people in the developing world is enormously encouraging, the Minister said.

The winning entrants will have an opportunity later this year to travel to a developing country to test their project in field. This visit will be supported by Irish Aid and Self Help Africa.

Self Help Africa's development education co-ordinator Patsy Toland said that there had been some fantastic projects in the running for the Science for Development Award in 2012, but that Keane and DJ were fitting winners for the manner they had set out to look at both the nutritional importance of dairy produce for the world's poor.

Self Help Africa has been running the 'Science for Development Award' in collaboration with Irish Aid for the past seven years.

The prize, which funds a field trip for the winners to Africa to field test their project, will enable the two Carlow students travel with Self Help Africa on a schools visit to Ethiopia at Easter 2012.

Previous winners of the award have included Tara McGrath from Kilkenny, whose subsequent visit to Ethiopia to test her cooking stove was the subject of an RTE television documentary, and Richie O'Shea, the 18 year old Cork student who also won the overall national BT Young Scientist of the Year award three years ago.

Download an informational brochure about the Irish Aid Science for Development Award

WEST AFRICA ETHIOPIA KENYA MALAWI UGANDA ZAMBIA

Self Help Africa - UK
Second Floor, Westgate House,Dickens Court,
Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QU
Tel. +44 (0) 1743 277170

Self Help Africa - Ireland
Kingsbridge House, 17-22 Parkgate Street,
Dublin 8, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)1 6778880

Self Help Africa Inc.
41 Union Square West, Suite 1027
New York, NY 10003, USA
Tel. +1 212 206 0847

Self Help Africa is an international charity registered in Ireland and the United Kingdom Registered charity number: 6663 (Ireland), and 298830 (UK)
Self Help Africa is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organisation in the United States.

Self Help Africa receives
support from the following
institutional donors: