Suas Educational Development Limited
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Mission Statement
We provide learning spaces where participants can dig deep into understanding the complexity and root causes of social and environmental issues, where they don’t learn to polarise but learn to dialogue with each other across different perspectives and experiences, where they develop empathy, where they get a space to imagine alternative futures and stand up for what they believe in.
About This Cause
Third-level students and recent graduates are navigating interconnected local and global challenges, and we know from our participants that there is particular concern about the climate and housing crisis, growing economic inequalities, conflict and migration. The recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland is spreading spread fear throughout our student network, many of whom are immigrants themselves or from diverse minority backgrounds. We currently work across 16 Irish campuses and the diversity that has emerged across Irish campuses in the past 20 years, with students coming from different socio-economic, cultural backgrounds, from different gender and countries of origin, brings great strengths to the learning opportunities we can provide. Our story begins in 2002 with the joint energy of a group of Trinity students, volunteers, and staff that formed Suas Educational Development. Ever since then we have been delivering transformative educational programmes, always listening to the changing global and social contexts and needs of each new generation and responding with new types of programmes. Our story includes an International Volunteer Programme, that trained over 1,200 student volunteers between 2002-2020 to work with local partners in Zambia, Kenya and India – a programme that was replaced in 2023 with the STAND Changemakers Academy, a new solidarity based leadership programme that responds to the needs of a new generation and harnesses the diversity that has developed across campuses in recent years. Our story also includes an Ireland based education programme that trained volunteers to support over 3,300 children from disadvantaged communities until 2021 when it joined forces with Camera Ireland to form Kinia, a new organisation. Reflecting the changes of the organisation we decided in 2024 to start trading as STAND. For all those that might be sad to see Suas go, please be assured that Suas is not going anywhere, it is just a name change. Our past stays with us. We take the dedication, commitment, the energy, the community of people that has been forming since 2002 with us as we move forward. We value our community and love opportunities for bringing alumni back together with us. We continue to deliver our educational programmes to third-level students and recent graduates currently in Ireland, from across disciplines and across the world, mobilising them to stand up for global justice, equity and sustainability. We are Irish Aid’s strategic partner for providing non-formal GCE in the Higher Education Sector and receive funding from partners such as Concern Worldwide, Community Foundation, Erasmus Plus. We know that we can have a greater impact when working collectively and collaborate with partners both locally and globally to deliver our programmes. In 2023 we worked across 16 campuses, engaged 12,000 students across our Festivals and 540 students through our educational programmes, including Global Issues courses, tailored workshops, STAND News, Ideas Collective and Changemakers Academy. We also deliver a service contract where we facilitate the staff that delivers the Irish Aid Centre workshops.