ABOUT GOAL

From its first year of operation in 1977, when it spent a mere Stg£10,000 on a street children’s project in Calcutta, GOAL has grown and grown – spending over Stg£392 million implementing relief and development programmes in 50 countries in the past 31 years.

GOAL ensures that the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable in our world and those affected by humanitarian crises have access to the fundamental needs and rights of life: food, water, shelter, medical attention and literacy.

GOAL has responded to nearly every major natural and man-made disaster in the past 30 years, working with the poorest of the poor in 50 countries… rebuilding communities after natural disasters in earthquake-ravaged Kashmir, Pakistan…building health clinics in Iraq…responding to the Asian tsunami in India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, Indonesia.…running emergency food and shelter programmes in Sudan’s violent Darfur region… providing emergency health in Afghanistan…responding to famines…floods in Mozambique, India, Bangladesh, Sudan, Nepal.… hurricanes in El Salvador and Honduras… cholera epidemics in the DRC… genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, East Timor, Kosovo…

…assisting and repatriating millions of refugees in the DRC, Sudan, northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, Albania, Bosnia – Herzegovina….sinking wells…refurbishing and building schools and houses…moving hundreds of tonnes of food in famine prone Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Niger.

…running rehabilitation and long-term development programmes…..women’s literacy programmes in Ethiopia and Sudan…assisting AIDS orphans in Malawi and Uganda…. investing in water & sanitation and infrastructure to assist poor and isolated rural communities in India, Philippines, Kenya….and slum dwellers in India, Honduras, Philippines, and Kenya….educating, feeding and clothing thousands of street children in Angola, Ethiopia, India, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya and Honduras…

Once emergency situations have been resolved, GOAL implements a wide range of rehabilitation programmes including primary healthcare, repair of home and infrastructure, clinics, schools etc., and water and sanitation. Long-term development programmes in areas such as health, nutrition, education and capacity building of indigenous humanitarian organisations are also implemented.

We have managed to do this on an exceptionally low administration cost .

Apart from offering practical assistance to the poor, GOAL advocates on their behalf. We try to convince the international community to honour its obligations to the poorest of the poor, and endeavor to exert as much pressure as possible on governments and other institutions with the capacity to bring about real change.  GOAL has long campaigned the Irish Government to cease channeling aid through corrupt government structures and administrations guilty of human rights abuses. Two notable successes came: in 2003 the Irish Government diverted €10 million in direct budgetary support from the Government of Uganda, and a further €2 million was cut in government aid in 2005.

GOAL is highly respected within the international donor community, and has earned several awards and accolades from the Irish, UK and US governments, various United Nations agencies, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, James Morris, the Mayor of New York, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.

GOAL works with missionaries and with local partner organisations that have similar objectives, with funding from the Irish public and a whole range of donor organisations.

GOAL has always endeavoured to raise funds through innovative ways, such as through sporting events, and is indebted to our sporting patrons who have generously lent their support to GOAL on many occasions - providing several of this country’s historic and lasting sporting memories. In 1985 GOAL organised a successful attempt on the world 4x1 mile relay when Eamonn Coghlan, Marcus O'Sullivan, Frank O'Mara and Ray Flynn set a new world mark which remains today. In the past, other notable sports people who have supported GOAL include Niall Quinn, Padraig Harrington, Sean Og O’ hAilpin, DJ Carey, John Mc Enroe, Pat Cash, Gordon D'Arcy and Sonia O’Sullivan to name a few.

None of this would have been possible without the constant generosity and support shown to us by the public which is deeply appreciated.