Waterford City parish helping African children through education

The St Joseph & St Benildus and St Mary's Parish in Waterford has revived a long-standing city and county tradition of assisting families in developing countries by forging a partnership with a poor parish in Kenya.

Parish priest Fr Liam Power, who is a columnist with Waterford News & Star, said the aim of the partnership is to assist the Good Shepherd Parish in Ishiara, which is a semi-arid region where the year-round growing of crops and raising of livestock is not possible due to lack of resources to harvest sufficient water during the rainy seasons.

St Joseph & St Benildus and St Mary's Parish is assisting the Kenyan parish in the area of water security and education at present. 

Through donations, the parish is currently putting three students through secondary education and the organising committee is hoping that other families, groups or small companies will come forward to help other students. 

The program is called 'Support a student in Ishiara' (SASI for short). However, the committee would also welcome with open arms any help from larger companies and their employees.

Secondary education in Kenya is not free - it costs about €600 per annum to put a child through school. Such a sum is impossible for most local people and the St Joseph & St Benildus and St Mary's committee is seeking a commitment to sponsor a child for the full six years which, it is estimated, will cost about €50 a month for the duration.

“It is a significant commitment,” said Fr Power.

"But for a group of people, a small business or even some families, it would be possible and would be a wonderful, generous thing to do as it would totally transform the life of a boy or girl in Kenya, enabling them to earn their own living after school and to then contribute to their own community," he added.

"We in Ireland learned long ago that education was the way forward out of poverty. We understand the enormous benefits it brings and, hopefully, we will be able to change the lives of more boys and girls in Ishiara by sending them to secondary school.” 

Fr Power went on to comment: "We appreciate that there are numerous calls on people’s money today but, if we can think of children who have no chance of progress if not assisted by the likes of us, we will be doing a noble and Christian service to those with very little hope.”

Fr Power added that sponsors will receive profiles and updates on the child's progress over the years. He also pointed out that a few years ago, Waterford City was in a partnership with the Kenyan district of Kitui. 

While being a very successful partnership, it ran its course and was eventually wound up. The remaining cash fund of €7,000 was recently transferred by the Kitui trustees to the new Ishiara Partnership.

St Benildus and St Joseph Parish is also, currently, working on one water project to help alleviate water harvesting deficiencies in the Good Shepherd Parish with the groundworks commencing on August 12.