Ruadhán Jones
Work is almost complete on a new maternity ward in Turkwel, Kenya, following a donation of €105,000 by a Ballineaspaig Parish, Cork.
Clare McCutcheon of Ballineaspaig’s Faith in Action (FIA) group was involved in organising the “huge fundraising” drive for the ward.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, she said the project “evoked generosity in people I’ve not seen in a long time”.
“We had some especially generous donations from particular people as the cause resonated with them,” she said.
“We invited people to sponsor a piece of equipment to commemorate family members and loved ones and that worked really well. The timing was good for some reason.”
The parish, also known as Dennehy’s Cross parish, has been twinned with Turkwel since the early 2000s where Cork priest Fr Oliver Noonan used to minister.
The idea for the maternity ward came after Ballineaspaig’s FIA group contacted Fr Noonan in 2019.
“We asked him what was their hearts’ greatest desire,” Ms McCutcheon explained. “He said they had a big dream of having a maternity ward attached to the health clinics.”
The cost of building the ward would be around €70,000 or €80,000, so Ballineaspaig decided to go for a “big fundraising drive”.
“We decided to do it properly, we produced a brochure for it and we got that sponsored and distributed it with an envelope to every house in the parish and immediate area,” Ms McCutcheon said.
They began distributing the brochures in early October 2019, setting themselves the target of €90,000. By Christ-mas, they had exceeded their goal.
Connection
“There’s a very strong connection with Turkwel in people’s hearts,” Ms McCutcheon said.
The final €15,000 came from donations by staff of the ESB and the HSE.
The maternity ward is one of a number of projects the parish has supported, such as irrigation schemes and health clinics.
They continue to take up annual collections for Turkwel’s most urgent needs.