This article is from page 6 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE second Building of Hope project being organised from Clare is already bearing fruit in Kenya, where twelve sewing machines have been bought so women can make a living.
The organisers of the building project have just returned from a planning mission to Migombani in Mombasa where Cranny priest, Fr Martin Keane, is working with the
poorest of families to provide basic education and training.
At a meeting of volunteers from the first Building of Hope Project in Missionvale, enough money was raised in a raffle to buy twelve sew- ing machines, which have been given to local women who will use them to make souvenirs which can be sold to help support their families.
Architect with the project, Jim Lynch was with the party and de- scribed the conditions in Mombassa
as “devastating. The people have nothing – they have little or no way to make a living and there is no social welfare support so they are barely SUrVIVINg. ”
Jim was also the architect on the last Building of Hope project, when almost 200 volunteers went to South Africa to build a hospice at Mission- vale run by Clare nun Sr Ethel Nor- moyle.
“Even the poverty there would not prepare you for this. But as far as the
work 1s concerned, we learned a lot in South Africa and we will be ready for some of the pitfalls this time,” he told