About Us

The Galway One World Centre (GOWC) was formed in 1992 as a voluntary organisation. A constitution was agreed and a Management Committee was elected. New committees are elected annually by current members of GOWC. Members of GOWC are individuals or groups with an interest in development education and solidarity work that links local and global issues.

• GOWC aim is to work in partnership with organisations, groups and individuals.
• GOWC's mission is to create educational opportunities in Galway that develop a critical analysis of the unequal power relationships that historically and currently exist between diverse groups, both locally and globally.

GOWC's aim is to empower people through education, direct action, networking, outreach and provision of resources to create a world where all people have equality of rights, opportunities and respect. GOWC's definition of development education is "a participatory, empowering and stimulating process that aims to expand the analysis of power, justice and equality that operates at both the local and global levels to challenge injustice and inspire solidarity actions".

Core Principles

• Justice - challenging structural inequalities and supporting fairer alternatives
• Partnership - promoting solidarity between groups and individuals sharing common goals
• Anti-Racism - tackling injustice at both local and global level depends on a thorough analysis of racism
• Education - developing and using methodologies and creative approaches that will reach diverse audiences
• Capacity Building
• Linking local and global - highlighting our existing connections worldwide in order to mainstream an understanding of interconnectedness
• Embracing Difference - cultivating a true appreciation of the strength of diversity

Education

Development Education is about questioning our knowledge and perceptions about how the world works and about what role we play in it. It looks at the meanings of concepts such as 'development' or 'education' in order to increase our understanding of the interconnectedness of our world. We aim to work with a number of different groups in our educational programmes as we believe that education is neither limited by age nor by the level of education people have received so far.

Primary

In-Career Training

Over the past ten years we have provided an annual in-career training course for primary teachers, covering development themes like refuge and asylum, fair trade, anti-racism approaches, human rights and citizenship in our week-long workshops.
We are also available to deliver workshops for individual and clusters of schools.

Development Education and the Arts

Over the past number of years, we have been delighted to work in collaboration with the Baboro International Arts Festival for Children to host storytellers from Guyana, Yemen, Jamaica, Australia, the UK and Ireland. Our most recent One World performer was Andrew Mc Kenna from Australia. Andrew worked with schools in East Galway as well as giving public performances in Glenamaddy Library and An Taibhdhearc in Galway city. You’ll find more about Andrew’s work at www.entertainoz.com.au/index.cfm?oid=14904. There’s also a copy of his CD Telling Tales available to rent in the GOWC library.
We still receive requests for information about previous Baboro performers Kate Corkery and Winston Nzinga, who worked with infants and first class students in Galway County, as well as running some excellent workshops for teachers and youth workers. Details of their CD and resource pack, ‘On Our Way’ (perfect for early years too) are at www.spudandyam.co.uk

Secondary

The Galway One World Centre receives many requests for workshops and talks with secondary students. 
We are also open for visits from school groups. We host short workshops for TY, CSPE and RE students (and others) of up to fifteen people. Currently RE students from our neighbours at the Bish visit for a weekly workshop addressing inequality in development and our responsibilities as global citizens.