Posted online: Sep 13th, 2011

Inishowen parents with young babies have been asked to take part in a pioneering initiative that can help reduce bullying in schools.
The “Roots of Empathy” programme was launched as a pilot scheme in the area last year and is now being rolled out across the peninsula.
The idea is that by bringing infants into classrooms and letting pupils see them growing up, the pupils will develop a deeper understanding for the feelings of others.
Co-ordinator Seana Hume explained how it works: “We’re looking for parents with babies aged between two to four months to volunteer to come into a local school nine times between October and June.
“The parent comes into the class to chat with pupils about their baby’s key milestones and development over their first year of life.”
She added: “The attachment relationship between a baby and a parent is an ideal model of empathy.
“Children learn to understand the perspective and emotional life of the baby and are then guided by the instructor to link this learning to their own lives.
“They gain deeper insight into their own and others’ emotions and into the impact of their behaviour on others.”
Two local schools took part last year – Scoil Iosagain in Buncrana and Scoil Cholmcille in Greencastle – and Seana said there were now eight Inishowen schools interested in participating this time around.
“We ran a pilot programme last year and it was a great success,” she said.
“We got great feedback from those schools – they can’t wait to do it again – and we’ve had no trouble getting new schools interested.
“The problem is finding parents with babies in the right age group.”
Seana added the parents who took part last year “got a lot out of it” and really enjoyed bringing their babies into the classrooms.
At the end of the programme they were given an album full of photos charting their child’s first year of life.
Likewise, she said the pupils also really enjoyed taking part: “The children loved to see the babies coming and loved seeing their milestones as they grew up in front of them.”
The Roots of Empathy programme was founded in Canada in 1996 and has since reached more than 373,000 children worldwide, including New Zealand, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Aside from the pilot programme here in Donegal last year, this is the first time the scheme, which is joint funded by the HSE and Peace III, has been implemented in the Republic.
Parents interested in taking part can contact Seana at Seana.hume@hse.ie or telephone 9109118.