TALK: Eddie Sheehy from the Kenya Education Project will feature in the Diocese of Kerry talk online tomorrow (Thursday).

The Diocese of Kerry is to host a 'Solidarity in Mission' webinar featuring two locals tomorrow evening (Thursday).

It's all part of Mission Month and takes place from 7.30pm - 8.20pm.

It'll be an opportunity to meet different people involved in mission here at home and abroad. During the webinar there will be short inputs from three modern missionaries followed by the opportunity to ask questions and share ideas about how 'Together We Can Do More'.

This conversation is being organised by the Returned Missionary/Volunteer group in conjunction with the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Committee (Diocese of Kerry).

[caption id="attachment_34242" align="alignleft" width="300"] WEBINAR: Martina O'Donoghue from Barraduff, pictured in Borena, Ethiopia with Trocaire, will take part in the Diocese of Kerry webinar.[/caption]

Speakers on the night will include Martina O' Donoghue originally from Barraduff who has a BA in History and Politics and a MA in International Relations. Martina has worked for Trócaire and her sister agencies CRS, CAFOD, SCIAF for almost 20 years. She has worked in Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda and returned to Ireland in 2020. Currently she is the Global Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Advisor for Trócaire. Martina is married to Wubeshet and they have two children, Tadgh (13) and Seán (11).

It'll also feature Fr Peter Hughes, originally from Co Mayo, now the coordinator of human rights and territorial rights for REPAM, a Catholic Church network that promotes the lives and dignity of people living in the Amazon.

Eddie Sheehy, will also take part. Eddie first travelled to Kenya in 2003 and stayed in the village of Embulbul, outside the capital, Nairobi. The parish there was run by SMA society and was a new vibrant parish which contained a slum village where approx 5,000 lived in very challenging circumstances. A school was opened for the young children of the area, which wasn’t a Government school, so obtaining funds to run it was always an issue. A year later a secondary school was opened which depended on donors and sponsorships to provide an education for the children of the slum. The Kenya Education project began fundraising to help sponsor children each year to attend school. It also helped with the purchase of equipment for science, sports and the school library. At present the project is sponsoring between 80-100 students each year. They also support the local branch of SVdP who work with the poorest of the poor in the slums, providing funding for medicines, food, hospital visits and home improvements. In recent years they also fund a weekly feeding programme in the parish with 80 students receiving a hot meal each weekday evening. For many it is their only hot meal of the day. Each year they also fund the further education of a few students who are determined to pursue further education. An annual summer camp is also organised each August for approx 30 students, a week of fun, games, activities and outings for kids who live in tough conditions in the village. Due to COVID, the schools are closed so the Kenya Education Project are funding monthly food parcels for 50 families who are struggling to put food on the table for their families. They hope to resume their core work in 2021.

For more information on the webinar please email desbailey@dioceseofkerry.ie or phone 064 6632644.