Mixed Race Irish

We have now met our Target!! Thank you to all our supporters and donors. Watch this space as we progress with our book project!! Hi everyone, I am Conrad Bryan, a trustee at the Association of Mixed Race Irish (AMRI). Welcome to our new project fundraising page! We are now doing a new and exciting project to publish a new book to donate to schools, libraries and Irish community groups/charities in Britain. We now have our manuscript almost finished! As you know, the best way to learn about fairness and respect for others, who may look different, is at a young age while at school. Like the children in the photo below, learning to read can also be fun. Reading books about diversity helps to make schools safer and happier places to learn, free name calling and racial abuse. If only we had more books with positive stories and images of people of African and Asian descent, this would help make life in schools a lot better for all children. I have been working, for some time now, with Dr. Chamion Caballero (Director of the Mixed Museum) and our team to raise funds towards the cost of producing educational books to be donated to schools, libraries and Irish charities across Britain. We have already raised some generous part-funding from the Irish government, and now need to raise the remaining £6,500 by crowd-funding with your kind help! The publication will be a book based on the successful AMRI exhibition in July 2020, which aims to tell the social histories, promote positive images of Irish people of African/Asian descent and help reduce racism through education. "I can fully understand how children feel at school today when they are singled out because of their colour and suffer name calling and racism in the schoolyard. During the 1960s to the 1980s, there weren’t many of us around with mixed African and Irish backgrounds in Ireland. Many of us were left in orphanages and institutions. The only time I read about black people was when the story of ‘Sambo’ appeared in a children’s book, which entered the school curriculum. It was an awful experience being called Sambo in the schoolyard, along with other racial slurs. It's hard to believe this still happens today" Project aims: Education is the approach AMRI is taking with this publication, which will aim to challenge negative stereotypes by providing educational content about the social history and contribution of people of African and Asian descent to Irish culture. This educational project aims to raise awareness of the racial discrimination that still exists today and in social history. It will be based on the online Mixed Museum exhibition noted above. We have included additional new material that was not in the Exhibition. This project aims to provide teaching professionals and students in secondary schools across Britain, particularly schools located in areas with higher populations of people of African and Irish descent, with the publication of approximately 750 books. We expect this publication to reach 5,000 people in a two-year period, which we hope will encourage discussions about racial discrimination, raise awareness of the problem and create a more positive discourse round people of African and Asian descent. The primary outcome will be to reach and educate over 5000 people about ethnic diversity, reduce racial prejudices and racism. It will also give a more positive image of ethnic minority communities. In addition to schools and libraries books will be donated to Irish NGOs and charities in Britain, to keep in their own archives or club libraries for their members. Project costs include; printing, editing, art & design, image copywriting costs, distribution and other project costs. Fortunately, no research is required as this was covered in part one when we produced the online exhibition, so there are no costs associated with research and writing as this has already taken place. This project is part two of a long-term project. While this stage focuses on secondary schools and libraries in Britain, the next phase will focus on Ireland. Should we raise more than our target we will roll this into our next project. We also plan to do an edition designed for primary schools in the future. We are pleased to say that the costs of this project are partly funded by the Irish Government's Emigrant Support Programme. Hence we are seeking to raise the remaining funds here. contact Conrad at: info@mixedraceirish.ie

Show More