STAND celebrates the power of ordinary people to change the world. With us, third level students in Ireland can share ideas about standing up for justice and equality, learn more about global issues, and find out what you can do to take positive action.

Suas Educational Development t/a STAND.

OUR VISION, MISSION AND PURPOSE

Our Vision

Global citizens working in solidarity for a just, equitable and sustainable world.

Our Mission

To engage third level students from Ireland and across the globe through collaborative learning and activism to contribute to bringing about the systems changes needed for a just, equitable and sustainable world.

Our Purpose

We mobilise third level students to stand up for global justice, equality and sustainability.

WE BELIEVE IN

Standing against
injustice and inequality in all its forms

People in Ireland and all over the globe are fighting for a more equal and just society. We are committed to sharing their stories and adding our voices to theirs.

Standing together
with those who are marginalised

Millions of people worldwide are facing intolerance and persecution, fleeing violence and war, living in poverty and dying of hunger. We are committed to showing solidarity with them.

Standing up
for a better, fairer world

Our actions have the power to change the world. We are committed to exploring the ways in which we can all come together as global citizens to take action for social and environmental justice.

OUR STORY

Our story begins in 2002 with the joint energy of a group of Trinity students, volunteers and staff that formed Suas Educational Development.  

Ever since then we have been delivering transformative educational programmes, always listening to the changing global and social contexts and needs of each new generation and responding with new types of programmes. 

Our story includes an International Volunteer Programme, that trained over 1,200 student volunteers between 2002-2020 to work with local partners in Zambia, Kenya and India – a programme that was replaced in 2023 with the STAND Changemakers Academy, a new solidarity based leadership programme that responds to the needs of a new generation and harnesses the diversity that has developed across campuses in recent years. Our story also includes an Ireland based education programme that trained volunteers to support over 3,300 children from disadvantaged communities until 2021 when it joined forces with Camera Ireland to form Kinia, a new organisation.   

Reflecting the changes of the organisation we decided in 2024 to start trading as STAND. We take the dedication, commitment, the energy, the community of people that has been forming since 2002 with us as we move forward.   

We continue to deliver our educational programmes to third-level students and recent graduates currently in Ireland, from across disciplines and across the world, mobilising them to stand up for global justice, equity and sustainability. Read here our strategic plan for the period of 2023-2027 to learn more.

OUR APPROACH

We deliver our educational programmes to third level students and recent graduates in the context of complex intersecting global challenges – including conflict and migration, the climate crisis, growing economic inequalities – and intense polarization of issues and people.

We believe that these challenges don’t need education that just scratches at the surface and facilitates simplistic solutions. Our educational approach brings together communities of third level students and recent graduates to dig deep into understanding the complexity and root causes of local and global issues, to develop empathy, show solidarity and become resilient changemakers in the present and future. Communities of people who don’t emphasise individualism in activism but collective action.

In 2023 we worked across 16 campuses, engaged 12,000 students across our Festivals and 540 students through our educational programmes, including Global Issues courses, tailored workshops, STAND News, Ideas Collective and Changemakers Academy. 

We are Irish Aid’s strategic partner for providing non-formal GCE in the Higher Education Sector and receive funding from partners such as Concern Worldwide, Community Foundation, Erasmus Plus. We know that we can have a greater impact when working collectively and collaborate with partners both locally and globally to deliver our programmes.  

OUR TEAM

Nina Sachau

Nina Sachau

Executive Director

Erin Kehoe

Erin Kehoe

Operations Manager

Caitriona Rogerson

Caitriona Rogerson

Head of Programmes

Amanda Marques

Amanda Marques

Comms & Marketing Manager

Susie Spratt

Susie Spratt

Festival Manager

Charlotte Bishop

Charlotte Bishop

Education & Research Manager

Clare Sheppard

Clare Sheppard

Leadership & Innovation Manager

Gale Aitken

Gale Aitken

STAND News Editor & Comms Officer

Informed by Our Student Advisory Panel

Jessica Mandanda

Jessica Mandanda

Ebere Edeh

Ebere Edeh

Heather Kenny

Heather Kenny

Christine O'Mahony

Christine O'Mahony

Sheenagh Rowland

Sheenagh Rowland

Lia Foley-Kelleher

Lia Foley-Kelleher

Cliona Kelliher

Cliona Kelliher

Craig McLoughlin-Burke

Craig McLoughlin-Burke

Carolina Martinez

Carolina Martinez

Hadiza Lemo

Hadiza Lemo

Diane Sheehy

Diane Sheehy

Zarina Dempsey

Zarina Dempsey

Akshay Sawant

Akshay Sawant

Yao Xie

Yao Xie

Joshua Dunne

Joshua Dunne

Sarah Tanishka Nethan

Sarah Tanishka Nethan

OUR BOARD

Anne Barrington

Anne Barrington

Anne Barrington was appointed in 2018 as Special Envoy of the Government of Ireland for Ireland’s successful UN Security Council Campaign for the term 2021-22 following her retirement having served 41 years predominantly in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Her last posting abroad was as Ambassador to Japan from 2014 to 2018. Anne was Joint Secretary in the North-South Ministerial Council based in Armagh, Ambassador to Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi and served in Ireland’s Embassy in Washington DC, the Consulate General of Ireland and Ireland’s Permanent Mission to the UN, both in New York. She served as a United Nations Volunteer in Lesotho from 1979 to 1980. When in Dublin Anne’s positions included Director General Europe Division 2011-2014. She also served for two years in the Department of the Taoiseach and was seconded as the Director of the National Forum on Europe.

Anne currently chairs the Governance Board of Cúram Centre for Research in Medical Devices NUIG, is on the board of Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance, Suas, and Literature Ireland. She is also on the advisory committee of the Trinity Centre for Asia Studies and chairs UCD’s History Development Council. A graduate of UCD in history and politics in 1975, Anne holds a certificate in Public Administration from the Institute of Public Administration, a Diploma in European Law from UCD and in 2019 she was awarded a Diploma in Corporate Governance from the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School.

 
Eunice Tolu Phillip

Eunice Tolu Phillip

Eunice is a current Global Health PhD scholar at the Division of Population Health, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Her study focuses on community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and community capacity building in households and ambient air pollution (HAAP) in rural Malawi. She is qualitatively implementing, exploring, and evaluating the different constructs of CBPR. She is also a research team member on ‘The Smokeless Village Project.’ A dynamic mixed-study project aimed at implementing a suite of interventions to address the HAAP in a rural community to bridge the health inequality from lack of access to a cleaner energy source.

Before starting her research career in 2018, Eunice worked as a registered nurse in emergency, TB/HIV, and childhood immunisation departments and on several community-level projects, including the WHO’ Kick Polio program’ in Nigeria. She received her MPH from the University College of Cork, where she focused on Health Promotion Studies. Her thesis titled ‘Household air pollution and anaemia in women and children: a cross-sectional study of six sub-Saharan African countries was awarded the Jacqueline Hogan Bronze Medal in Public Health and Epidemiology. She currently volunteers with the Irish Global Health Network as the national coordinator of the ‘Student Outreach Team’ and sits as a student representative on the RCSI Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion unit.

Shane Twomey

Shane Twomey

Shane Twomey is a senior Organisation, Change and Management Consultant with over 25 years’ experience in Multi-national, Indigenous and Public Sector environments. He is experienced in providing a range of organisation solutions including Organisation Design & Development, Organisation Change and Executive Coaching. Prior to moving into consultancy, Shane worked in a range of Senior Human Resources roles with numerous blue-chip organisations including Maxtor, where he had a European brief, Siemens, where he was responsible for implementing Strategic HR, and Viridian Power & Energy, where Shane developed a commercial HR Framework.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, Shane holds a Masters in Human Resources from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. He is a Registered Coach with Henley Management School, is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Management Consultants & Advisors and a member of the Institute of Directors.

David Moffit

David Moffit

David began his career as a General Management Trainee with Smurfit Kappa where he ran packaging factories in Ireland and Spain. From 1992 to 1996, he was the Irish Director for R.R. Donelley before establishing Tech Group Europe, a manufacturer of drug delivery devices which was later sold to West Pharmaceutical Services Inc.

David was a member of IBEC’s National Executive Council from 2005 to 2009 and sat on the Investment Committee of Enterprise Ireland from 2008 to 2013. He was a key shareholder and CEO of Kayfoam Woolfson from 2009 to 2023. He is also Chairman of Folens Group whose major business interests included Folens Publishing, Hibernia College and Accountancy School. David is active in the Not for Profit sector and also Board Member of Kinia and the Human Dignity Foundation and Ideate Ireland.

Niamh De Loughry

Niamh De Loughry

Niamh has worked for over fourteen years with a multitude of local partners, international NGO & government departments and corporate sector engagement in a variety of humanitarian and development settings. She has worked particularly in Education, Health and Protection sectors in Asia and the Middle East.

Niamh has led large teams through organisational change, strategic development and resource mobilization. She has worked closely with governments to set policies and integrate frameworks. With an academic background in accounting, and a masters from Trinity College Dublin in Reconciliation After Violent Conflict, she started her professional career as an accountant. Niamh is currently Deputy Chief Executive for the RDS’s Philanthropic programme.

Ronan O'Loughlin

Ronan O'Loughlin

Vice-chair of Suas. Director of Education and Training, Chartered Accountants of Ireland. Ronan is responsible for development, oversight and management of the ACA education programme at Chartered Accountants Ireland and management of the examinations system.

 

Annual Reports

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

OUR NEWSLETTERS

If you are a current third level student, recent graduate student, or staff at an HEI who wants to share information with their students, please subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter and we’ll email you with updates on programme opportunities.

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