University of Limerick Crowned 2021 Enactus Ireland Champions
28th May 2021
The University of Limerick (UL) was crowned the winner of the Enactus Ireland National Competition last night through an event produced by RTÉ and streamed via Enactus Ireland social media pages to family and friends and a wider audience of academic and business stakeholders.
One of the winning team’s projects, Anytime of the Month founded by Clodagh Guerin, sets out to alleviate the effects of period poverty in Ireland and tackles the stigma and lack of education around periods. Another project was Moyo Nua, which has developed agricultural seeding planters for smallholder farmers in Africa. The project utilises simplified agricultural technologies that are both ergonomic and environmentally friendly.
The annual social enterprise competition, supported by founding sponsor KPMG, this year saw colleges from 10 Higher Education Institute’s (HEI) across the country compete for the title where the winning team will go forward to represent Ireland at the Enactus World Cup this October. Set to be hosted virtually again this year, the Enactus World Cup will see 36 countries present their social innovation projects. The projects must align with the UN sustainable development goals and prove they can generate real social and environmental impacts.
To celebrate this year’s competition, Enactus Ireland set out to raise awareness about social enterprises and their impact on broader society, particularly during Covid-19. While Enactus primarily works with third-level projects, a significant number go on to become viable social enterprises that contribute substantially to their communities and local economies.
Karina Howley (pictured), Head of Corporate Citizenship and Diversity, KPMG and Enactus Board Member, said, “KPMG is proud to support a competition that enables student social entrepreneurs to develop their projects into initiatives that make a real impact to Irish society. In an academic year impacted by the pandemic, the importance of this competition and the work the students do cannot be overstated. The teams have done a tremendous job once again and it is fantastic to see the level of interest for ethical business and social impact growing amongst our third-level students.”
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