S.N.Naomh Eoin, Rath

Darren Hanniffy, a qualified civil engineer, is a native of Birr, Co Offaly and has worked for GOAL since 1998. An accomplished sportsman, Darren won a coveted All-Ireland hurling medal with his native Offaly in 1998.

Darren has worked as a GOALie in a number of developing countries, including Honduras, Uganda and Haiti.

When a massive earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, Darren immediately left his post as GOAL Country Director in Honduras, and travelled to the Haiti capital of Port-au-Prince, arriving on the day after the earthquake struck.

He relinquished his post in Honduras to become GOAL Country Director in Haiti. Darren took charge of planning, organising and co-ordinating GOAL’s emergency response in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, and over the next 14 months, oversaw GOAL’s medium to longer term programmes of redevelopment.

As well as providing emergency medical assistance in Haiti, GOAL distributed plastic sheeting to protect hundreds of thousands of homeless people against the rains, and managed to feed almost 500,000 people. Clean water was made accessible through emergency water distributions, extensive sanitation work was undertaken, and cash was injected into the community through cash-to-work programmes that were initiated to remove the rubble and other debris.

GOAL signed an $11m contract with the US Government to build 2,000 transitional shelters and several hundred latrines and hand-wash blocks.

Darren is currently employed as Business Development Manager for GOAL.