The Kerryman, 28 January 2009

FROM massive flooding earthquakes, and hurricanes to wars – there are few types of largescale humanitarian disasters that Listowel man Richard Pierse has not witnessed since leaving a well-paid job as an accountant in Dublin in 2004.

Now GOAL's Director of Operations in India, the Convent Cross native – a son of Tom and Mary Pierse – left it all behind following a holiday in Uganda in 2003. "I decided that I wanted to try voluntary work in the Third World after that holiday and applied for a position with Goal."

He was duly dispatched to Angola. "It was a baptism of fire to be honest. We were dealing with a post-conflict situation following three decades of seemingly intractable war and the work was fairly tough."

Here Richard learned the NGO ropes – at the coalface, in terms of making sure every last cent of Irish aid was used efficiently at ground level. "We were mainly responsible for setting up health clinics in Angola. One of the last ones was established on the Congolese border in tricky conditions, to say the least but it was hugely rewarding work." Indeed, five years after just saying no to the Celtic Tiger, Richard hasn't looked back. "I was back home for my first Christmas in three years and, down the hotel on Stephen's night I was certainly thinking 'this is pretty good', but I haven't looked back, really. I wake up every morning now and think 'excellent, I'm going to work!'" You can't say fairer than that and Richard is currently falling in love with his current base of Calcutta.

Since Angola, he has worked in the Kashmir region (following the massive 2005 earthquake) and with children in Honduras (getting over 6,000 off the streets).

He started in India last April where he is now responsible for a variety of projects in education, water and sanitation and emergency relief. It was in Calcutta, of course, that GOAL was founded by John O'Shea after a trip in 1977.

"India is a fascinating country, very vibrant with an extraordinarily rich culture. However, it is beset with massive social problems, most notably in the conditions of its huge city slums. Rural dwellers continue to migrate in huge numbers into these slums and they're in huge danger of exploitation."

Part of Richard's work is in the administration of an education programme preparing slum children for state schools. Another part sees GOAL establishing proper water and sanitation for schools across the country. "But we're also trying to address the fundamental problem that sees the slums continuing to spread. Where are people coming from in the countryside and . why?"

To this end GOAL have established the Model Villages Project – getting businesses started and building schools in deprived rural areas where, previously, desperation would have driven inhabitants into the cities. "Indians are very industrious people and very eager to work. Our underlying principle is to try to empower these people to create their own wealth at the end of the day and we're meeting with great success, I'm glad to say.

"We can never emphasise enough how much donations from home mean here and now, in times of recession, donations are needed more than ever. Even EUR5 can make a huge difference.