Maura Rea
Maura transformed her life through adult learning. She started to turn her life around after accepting an invitation from her daughter’s school to take part in a 15-week ‘Read to Succeed’ programme run by the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education (BIFHE). She was determined to acquire the skills to help her daughter.
Thanks to the programme, she found herself at the age of 40 with a level two qualification – and a rekindled interest in writing. The course tutor Hilda McCready encouraged her to join a creative writing class.
Maura joined a BIFHE creative writing group. She gained a level three through the Better Reading Partnership (BRP), helping children to read, and attended courses on creative writing, poetry editing, linguistics and phonics, writing on the web, ICT, drugs awareness for parents and IT multi-media.
In 2003 she was invited by BIFHE to join a 2 year Grundtvig Women's European project, "Images of Interaction". She worked with groups from Germany, Barcelona, Denmark, Poland and at an exhibition in the Waterfront Hall in 2004, which was run by BIFHE, Maura spoke about her experience of being on the project. She also did a presentation at the final conference in Barcelona.
Since 2004 she has worked on BRP part-time at her daughter’s secondary school, started a creative writing after school club and works in the art department.
For further details on Maura Rea, please contact DEL Press Office on 028 9025 7872.
