Trócaire marked the start of its 35th Lenten campaign yesterday with the launch of a website designed to increase awareness and encourage debate about issues in the developing world.
The "Just World" website is described as a "Bebo-style" social networking site for people interested in development and social justice.
Members can create profiles, post blogs and photos and communicate with people from other countries, which Trócaire hopes will develop a "global conversation" about issues of development. The website has been running on a pilot basis and members must be 16 or older to join.
Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire, said yesterday that the group has always focused on creating awareness among young people about the problems of the developing world, and that it was important to communicate with them in the medium they use most regularly.
"Clearly websites like Bebo and MySpace have been phenomenally successful and this is our attempt to engage people in that kind of way of speaking to each other, in a community where they have shared values and shared interests in these issues," he said.
The theme of this year's Lenten campaign is gender equality which, along with HIV, is one of the priorities of Trócaire's 10-year strategy.
"Two out of three poor people in the developing world are women," Mr Kilcullen said.
The Just World online community can be accessed at: