and An Email from Kenya from Cordal woman and former journalist with The Kerryman, Amy Ní Riada informs us of a project which is reaching out to home and involving a major fundraiser due to ‘run’ at Castleisland’s An Ríocht Athletic Club on Monday.
Amy sets out the plan for the event as follows:
“On Monday, December 18th. Volunteers will take to the track at An Ríocht Athletic Club in Castleisland for a major fundraiser in aid of a Kerry charity in Kenya.
The Kenya Education Project provides primary and secondary education bursaries for children living in Embulbul slum, 25km northwest of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
One Solid Meal A Day
As well as providing school sponsorships, the project also supports a feeding programme which guarantees up to 80 people, who are living in the most dire conditions, with one solid meal a day.
The goal of the fundraiser is to clock up a distance of 300km on the track at An Ríocht over the course of the day with the help of some volunteers while matching the distance with the amount of money raised. The sum of 300,000 Kenyan shillings equates approx to €1,800.
The Kenya Education Project was founded in 2003 by Killarney Road, Castleisland man Eddie Sheehy, who has been living in Fossa, Killarney for the past 40 years.
Kenya Education Project
After witnessing first-hand the devastating circumstances under which people are living in the slums, he decided to found the project on a small scale. He started out with just a few bursaries supported by his friends in Ireland who kindly sponsored a handful of the children living there. The charity has grown over the past two decades and now sponsors 85 children a year while providing thousands of euro in funding for the feeding programme.
Last March, heavy rains caused flooding in many of the houses, some of which are constructed of mud, tin and corrugated iron. The Kenya Education Project, which currently has volunteers operating on the ground, stepped in to provide emergency flood relief such as food, medical supplies, clothing, new beds and blankets and appropriate footwear to help protect children in particular, from disease-infested stagnant water.
Hampers for Vulnerable Families
This December, the project is providing Christmas hampers for 60 of the most vulnerable families in the slum which will include maize flour, chapati flour, cooking oil and sugar. Also on the agenda is to help girls in the struggle relating to period poverty as many young girls often end up missing school for one week out of the month as a result of the lack of resources available to them. This year the project hopes to highlight the issue and fund the provision of underwear and hygiene products.
Many children, with the help of kind donors in Kerry and across Ireland, have made it through the school system under the KEP’s sponsorship programme and were equipped with the education to enter into the workforce or further their studies in college, an opportunity which would otherwise would have been non-existent for them.”
Further Information
For any more information on the above, or for comment, please contact Eddie Sheehy on 085 749 7271. Potential running volunteers can contact Amy Ní Riada on WhatsApp on 087 70 42 964. An idonate page has been set up for donations.
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