Dublin City University (DCU) and the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation have teamed up to develop a unique scholarship programme for DCU’s School of Nursing which will support nursing scholarships and will be funded through the collection of unwanted mobile phones (Tuesday 9th February 2010).  The winners of the scholarships will be chosen from DCU’s Access Scholarship programme and each of the scholarships will be funded through the collection and recycling of 600 mobile phones.  The unwanted mobile phones will be recycled and the cash raised converted into home nursing care for Jack & Jill families nationwide, as well as supporting the nursing students.  The new programme is officially launched today by Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU, Jonathan Irwin, CEO and Founder of Jack & Jill and DCU’s students’ union Vice-President Melanie Farrellin the Student Centre in DCU.  The DCU Educational Trust and Jack & Jill initiative means that more young people than ever can grasp the opportunity to reach their full potential through higher education at DCU’s highly acclaimed School of Nursing.   The overall aims of the DCU Access Scholarship Programme are to develop positive attitudes to education and encourage more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider going on to third level education.  

Welcoming the new fundraising initiative which is the first of its kind in Ireland, Jonathan Irwin, CEO and Founder of Jack & Jill said, “We’ve always had to be creative in the way we raise our €3 million budget every year, especially in this recession, and supporting the nursing school in DCU makes sense and everyone benefits.  This is a really important case study for us and down the line we hope to extend such scholarships across other disciplines.  It’s great to start with the nurses as we depend so much on good nurses to deliver our home nursing care model in every community in Ireland.  I want to thank everyone in DCU for helping us to develop this new fundraiser and to ask the thousands of students and alumni across DCU to really get behind this initiative.

Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU, said: “We are delighted to launch this new initiative to fund nursing scholarships with the support of Jack & Jill. We are encouraging all students, staff, alumni and friends of the university to give their unwanted mobiles to DCU. All the money collected will go directly into nursing scholarships as well as supporting Jack & Jill families nationwide. The campaign to recycle mobile phones will heighten awareness of the DCU Access Programme and the difference it makes to so many students.

DCU has 11,000 students including approximately 7,500 undergraduates, 2,500 taught Masters students and over 750 research students.  Programme offerings in DCU include 95 undergraduate programmes and 98 postgraduate taught programmes in Business, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering and Computing, and Science and Health. A multi-cultural university, over 15 per cent of undergraduate students are from overseas, while 20 per cent are from a non-traditional background (access, disability, mature students).  For more information on the DCU Access Scholarship Programme go to www.dcu.ie/students/access/index.shtml

The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation was set up in 1997 by Jonathan Irwin and his wife MaryAnn O’Brien (MD of Lily O’Brien’s) to help young children in Ireland who are born with or develop brain damage and who suffer severe intellectual and physical developmental delay as a result.  They decided to set up Jack & Jill based on their own experience with their son Jack whose short life showed them the ideal way in which little children can be nursed at home.  From their experience evolved the Jack & Jill model of home nursing and respite care that supports 291 families in Ireland today – 73 of which are in Dublin - and has helped over 1,200 children and their families since 1997.  The service includes home visits, advice, information, funding, lobbying and bereavement support.  Jack & Jill requires €3 million per annum to operate this service and, with only 19% coming from the State, the Foundation raises the bulk of its budget through mobile phone recycling.  See www.jackandjill.ie

For more information contact DCU Alumni Office on 01-7008686/89