This article is from page 37 of the 2009-08-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
FOUR hundred lucky Clare people will next month get the chance to win a luxury BMW 320 while at the same time help a very worthy charity.
North Clare man Michael Guthrie, who has just returned from the island of Pemba in Tanzania, has decided to auction his car in an effort to help build a major church and school for the children of the island.
Michael, who along with 15 other volunteers joined Ennistymon char1- ty workers Pat and Neilus O’Doherty in Pemba last month, is hoping to raise €20,000 for the project.
Only 400 tickets, priced at <€50 each, are available for this raffle, making the chances of winning bet- ter than in most other raffles of it’s kind. “Whatever money I raise is going to go to the school and church project. We were over there working on it last month and we think with €20,000 we could probably afford to complete the whole first floor of the building and maybe more,’ he said. “The people over there have not- ing at all and the only way that they will ever be able to make a better life for themselves and their children is through education. And that is what we are hoping to help with.” The island of Pemba contains al- most 400,000 but is largely ignored by the Tanzanian government. Local children have virtually no access to education and unemployment on the island is almost universal. “We all had a very good time out there and worked very hard. The people, especially the people out there for the first time, learned an awful lot,’ said Pat O’ Doherty. “Work on the foundation had al- ready started, but we put in a few weeks of really hard work and made some great progress in a very short time. The workers had been stand- ing bare-footed, mixing the concrete with their shovels when we arrived. “We managed to but a cement mixer on the mainland and had it brought onto the island which totally revolutionised the work. The people out there are so poor and have so lit- tle work. ‘Each day people arrive at the site to look for work. We would pay them what we could and they would work all day helping to dig the foundations. They were so eager and happy to get whatever work they could get.” Anyone interested in purchasing a ticket can contact Michael at 086 Soh eed ee