Two first year students at Our Lady’s Bower have been making waves, featuring in an Irish Times special on the direct provision system in Ireland and putting together a documentary on RTÉ radio during the Christmas holidays.
During the summer of 2014, Natasha Maimba and Minahil Sarfraz worked with Carl O’Brien in the gathering of information for his articles for The Irish Times on the direct provision system called Lives in Limbo. Subsequently Ciaran Cassidy of RTÉ approached the girls to put together a radio programme called Teenage Life behind Bars which was broadcast during the Christmas break. The girls had three months to come up with ideas for the 40-minute documentary, record them, and send them to Ciaran. Natasha and Minahil had just started secondary school, but were happy to take on the work to highlight the injustices of this system.
This week, the girls were invited to visit Loreto, Bray to talk about making the programme and the issues it raises. A representative of UNICEF has also approached Natasha and Minahil with a view to making a programme with them.
The staff of Our Lady’s Bower are very proud of these insightful and outspoken young girls, and look forward to the day they become Irish citizens.
