Mags Gargan
Donations to Trócaire’s emergency response in East Africa has raised €2.4m so far, with about half that amount coming from a church collection in parishes nationwide.
Funds from the parish collection, which was sanctioned by the Irish Bishops’ Conference in late July, are continuing to come into the charity, and the total figure is expected to rise significantly over the next few weeks.
“Dioceses have to gather collections from every parish before submitting their final returns to us and that process usually takes a number of weeks.
“Once all diocesan returns are in, we are hopeful that total donations to our emergency response in East Africa will be in the region of €5m,” said Éamonn Meehan, executive director of Trócaire.
Generosity
“This is another example of the generosity of parishioners up and down the country. The Catholic community in Ireland is exceptionally generous and responds with huge compassion to the suffering of others.”
For several months now Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have been experiencing the devastating impacts of prolonged drought.
More than 26 million people in the affected regions are now severely food insecure and without a good rainfall forecast it is expected that the crisis will worsen.
Essentials
“The scenes in East Africa over recent months have been heartbreaking,” said Éamonn Meehan, continuing that Trócaire’s teams are working hard to get food, water and other essential aid to the communities affected.
“The donations from parishes across Ireland have allowed us to greatly expand our programmes and have allowed us to reach more affected communities,” he said.
“Those donations will result in food, water, healthcare and other life-saving aid for people who have been left in humanitarian crisis due to the worst drought in living memory.”