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Cabinteely Parish
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Cabinteely parish first got
involved in supporting Kitui late 2005 when Fr.
Paul Healy made an appeal for money to buy motorbikes. Fr
Paul, a native of Dalkey, and a priest of the Dublin
Diocese, went out to Kitui in 1998, intending to stay for
a year or two. Eight years later, Fr Paul was appointed
Diocesan Administrator, or acting Bishop, of the Diocese
of Kitui. In 2005, Fr Paul returned to Ireland to appeal
for support for the financial needs of this very poor
diocese.
In contrast to
Ireland, Kitui has no shortage of priests or seminarians-
but there is a severe shortage of infrastructure and
transport. Because of the very poor murram roads
throughout the diocese, and of course due to the lower
running costs, off-road motorbikes are the most practical
form of transport. In 2005, Fr. Paul, then the Diocesan
Administrator, was faced with a situation in which he had
newly ordained priests freshly appointed to new parish
positions, but unable to carry out their pastoral duties
in full because they had no means of transport. As
a result of his appeal the people of Cabinteely donated
€13,000 for the purchase of four motorbikes.
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Following
this appeal, Aidan Corless met with Fr. Paul to see what
other help we could give. This resulted in Aidan's first
visit to Kitui in September 2005, where he saw at first
hand the enormity of the problem in Kitui. Aidan resolved
to take on board the challenge of supporting the education
of AIDS orphans. On his return, he appealed to the people
of Cabinteely parish on behalf of the people of Kitui,
for sponsorship on behalf of 100 AIDS orphans. By
Christmas 2005, we had gathered another 25,000 euro to
educate 50 orphans.To date (June 2007) the parishoners have
donated a total of €93,900 in two years. |
At the same time Fr Paul had
shown the need for a new boarding school in Kitui, and so
Aidan set out to raise funds for this.The School project
will cost €450,000 (including land) in total. We now
have raised €160,000 euro to date.
The parish will continue
to support orphan sponsorship as we feel it is most
important to educate the youth,and give them opportunity
to get out of the poverty trap.
We also want to help in
the fight against aids.
Our plans are to get the
youth of the parish involved in raising funds, to have
cake sales, to have a garden sale. We also want to share
the talent of our parish with Kitui, by helping in the
various projects undertaken by Friends of Kitui.
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The parish
council has agreed to twin with the diocese of Kitui.We
hope to broaden the scope of our assistance to Kitui and we
intend to try to get more Dublin parishes to twin, or
partner, with Kitui parishes.
We are extremely grateful
for the active support and encouragement of Fr Tom
O'Keeffe, Fr Arthur O'Neill and Fr Conor Ward, and of
course all the parishioners who have supported these
projects, whether through involvement and encouragement, or
through financial contributions. |
| Visit the website for the Parish of
Cabinteely HERE |
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