Three Cork women to embark on bootcamp for activists 

Three Cork change-makers are among 21 people from across the island of Ireland who have been selected to take part in a residential bootcamp this week that aims to equip emerging activists with strategic campaigning skills.

The free ‘Alice Academy for Activists’ bootcamp, taking place at Fumbally Stables in Dublin from January 15-18, is being hosted by Alice Public Relations with support from Community Foundation Ireland.

This will be the second iteration of the bootcamp, which is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.

Martina Quinn, company CEO, says that with increasing polarisation across society and far right narratives often dominating public debate, it is more important than ever that we have well-resourced and highly-skilled activists who have all the tools and expertise they need to champion progressive causes.

By taking part in the Academy, Fahmeda Naheed hopes to develop her project to embed anti-racism education within community education in Ireland.

Blackpool-based Fahmeda, a mother of five, moved to Cork from Pakistan 17 years ago to study at UCC. She has a degree in Asian Studies. She describes herself as a community leader whose work includes teaching cooking skills, broadcasting on Cork Community Radio, writing, and doing a doctorate through Dublin City University in anti-racism education.

“I am doing my PhD through the lens of community education. I have different professional experiences as a migrant working in Cork. Working in the community shows up racism. There is structured racism and systemic racism happening in the community.”

Fahmeda is open about her personal experiences of racism and has written about it on platforms such as stand.ie.

She says that if the tradition of community development is looked at, “activism is not really about protest. It is about creating solutions. My goal is to make anti-racism a core competence and not just an occasional awareness exercise. I want to demonstrate how anti-racism and inclusive learning can transform the community and promote equality”.

Olivia Teahan, from Grange, is a health communication specialist and sexual wellbeing advocate. She is developing a project to build sexual health rehabilitation into cancer care to support people whose bodies, relationships and identities have changed due to illness or treatment. More broadly, Olivia is working to reshape how public healthcare and healthcare practitioners understand sexual wellbeing. She wants to destigmatise it, moving it beyond a narrow focus on infections, contraception and crisis response.

In her Masters Degree in public health from UCC, Olivia focused her thesis on sexual desire in Irish women over 50. “Sexual desire is an indicator of sexual health and should be part of public health. A woman that I interviewed for my thesis had gone through a medical menopause as a result of cancer treatment. It had really changed her experience of sex. This woman’s desire had gone. Also, there was the knock-on effect on communication with her partner.”

There is a stigma around cancer survivors and their sex lives, says Olivia.

“Things have changed for the better in terms of cancer treatment. People can live long lives (after cancer). They want to be able to enjoy their relationship and their own body. That just wasn’t prioritised because the focus was all on survival.”

Originally from Crosshaven, Sinéad McMahon, is a political support worker at the National Traveller Women’s Forum (NTWF). She is passionate about driving equality, diversity and inclusion in politics. Her campaign, which she is collaborating on with her colleague Bridget Power, aims to empower Traveller women to participate in politics. Their main focus is on promoting the NTWF political internship scheme. This will see Traveller women who want to learn more about politics, paired with an experienced public representative who will act as a mentor and guide to them.

Martina says that often “activists have emerged in a non-structured way”.

“People become accidental activists because of something in their personal lives that they’re not happy with. It could be childcare services or there might be a health issue in their family that they’re trying to address. It’s not something you can go off and get a degree in to get all the right skills. The bootcamp we have organised will address the challenges that the activist community comes up against. It’s for men and women of all ages. Our oldest participant this year is in her 60s while the youngest is only 18. We had over 50 applicants and it was hard to whittle that down to 21 people. They are really committed to making positive change.”

The segment of the bootcamp dealing with strategy and planning campaigns will be covered by Martina. Ailbhe Smyth, feminist and life-long activist, will do a session on coalition building which will look at how people build support for their campaigns. Retired RTÉ news veteran, Eileen Dunne, will talk about how to engage with the media effectively.

An expert in community organising, Stephen Donnelly, from Australia, will talk to participants about growing a grassroots base. Former east Cork TD, David Stanton, will share insights on how to deal with the political system.

Chief executive of Community Foundation Ireland, Denise Charlton says: “Community Foundation Ireland supports the Alice Academy for Activists because we believe in the power of voices to create change. At a time when communities are facing deep challenges, we must invest in the people who are standing up and speaking out for positive change.

“The academy is our philanthropic response to that need to equip activists. We listen to the voices of grassroots organisers and frontline advocates and help amplify those voices and actions, not just for today, but for the future we all deserve.”