Young Leitrim woman hosts President Connolly at the national Young Carers Conference

On the weekend of international women's day, two amazing young local women, Saoirse Hayden (19) from County Leitrim and Shannika Greene (20) from County Roscommon hosted the first of its kind National Young Carers Conference.

The event was supported by Dr Niall Muldoon via the Office of the Ombudsman for Children and attended by Professor Philip Jaffe the Vice Chair of the UNCRC committee, who flew in especially for the event from Switzerland.

The event was held at the O'Reilly Hall UCD.

The event was opened by another impressive woman, President Catherine Connolly, who gave a heartfelt speech about the role of young carers, which was echoed throughout the day by a candid presentation of the real lives of young carers, who stated that their own burden is the lack of support.

An Erasmus+ event funded by Irish National Agency for EU funded, Léargas, saw a team of young carers present their stories through academic research, participatory research, drama, music, poetry, art and hard hitting personal statements and calls to action from the young carers for Ireland's key decision makers.

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"The important question now is if, how, and when those calls to action will be responded to" asked Co-lead organiser Shannika as she encouraged attendees to engage with their TDs,who were all invited to the event today,with little uptake on that invite.

Co lead on the project, Saoirse said "We want to host mature conversations about how to best improve life experiences for young carers, that are often overly adult in nature and can include serious financial strain, emotional and mental health challenges, and even violence."

Saoirse ended the conferences saying "The time for action is now as we don't want to have to come back next year, it's not right that young person should have to prostitute private details about their lives to access basic human rights."

Shannika spent time discussing how the urgent housing crisis of inadequate, even unsafe housing hugely affects young carers and the person they care for, with Senator Tom Clonan, who was part of a Q&A panel, reminding everyone that the level of responsibility placed on family carers depends on how much independence is facilitated for People Disabilities.

The 12 strong youth project team plan to submit an application to be in included in the International National Young Carers Conference in Berlin this October