SOCIAL MEDIA AWARENESS CAMPAIGNER
AOIBHEANN MANGAN & PADRAIC GODWIN

Dot com entrepreneurs could learn a thing or two from best friends Aoibheann and Padraic whose drive to highlight farm safety has meant their campaign going global.
The youngsters are the dynamic duo behind www.farmsafety4kids.net which, at last count, has reached an impressive 3.8m unique visitors since going live in 2014. The two pals noticed there was no dedicated website where children could get farm safety advice.

And coming from the rural community of Tuam, the two website whizzes know all too well the tragic consequences that can happen to children and adults on farms.
“We didn’t want any more kids and adults dying on farms,” explained Aoibheann simply.

“There are a lot of accidents on farms that are preventable. We were learning about farm safety in school when we came up with the idea. We wanted to get the website working before the summer because that is when a lot of the accidents happen. It was hard work getting the pages sorted and we made videos for it.”

And despite the pair having sporadic internet connection in their area, they were undeterred and the website continues to grow from strength-to-strength.

Iseult Mangan, the pair’s teacher and Aoibheann’s mother said: “They blew me away. They are now invited to agricultural shows and were even invited to speak at a conference in Canada.

“They travel around the country and set up their stall at farm shows. The HSE website has even added a page especially to educate kids on farm safety as a result of what they’ve done.”
The pair is now putting the Minister of Education Richard Bruton under increasing pressure to make farm safety part of the school curriculum.

Judges’ opinion: “Well done to Aoibheann and Padraic. They have shown incredible entrepreneurial initiative in using the power of social media and their website to get such an important message across about farm safety for kids. “Thanks to Aoibheann and Padraic other government organisations are now following their lead.”