The Newry group was founded following a visit to SMA projects in Africa by the local writer and broadcaster Rowan Hand.
Rowan’s role was to direct and present the documentary to celebrate 150 years of SMA work in Africa.
The SMA commitment to Africa made a deep impression and he immediately assisted with a school feeding programme being run by Sr. Kathleen Costigan, OLA and obtained the agreement of the then Irish Ambassador to the West African Nations, His Excellency Liam Canniffe, to match in Africa what his group would raise in Ireland.
Further voluntary fund-raising in Ireland for the projects in Africa is done by Fr. Donall O’Cathain the young SMA priest from Cork who has spent the last seventeen years working as a lone European among the Kamberi people of Borgu in Niger State, north west Nigeria. He is a man of holiness with an insatiable appetite for hard work.
Donall is assisted by local groups of volunteers in Ireland, in particular the members of the Newry Africa Link in Newry County Down. |
