Think of Shelter when buying Christmas wine

If 10 people buy one less bottle of wine at Christmas and give the €8 to Maintain Hope, then the children at the orphanage in Kenya which the charity supports will all have meat for another Sunday, writes Brian Byrne.

It's as simple as that, says Gerry O'Donoghue, writing from the Shelter Childrens Home outside Nairobi. It is one of hundreds of such orphanages in a country which has 2.6m orphaned children in part because of a decimation of the adult population through illnesses. One in five children will die before they are five, and infant mortality is more than ten times greater than in Ireland.

"Kenyans love their children just as much as we do," says Gerry, one of the founders of the Maintain Hope charity set up to look after the Shelter home. "They grieve for them just as we would in Ireland, but they have to do it more often."

Apart from the annual summer trip by volunteers to the Shelter home, Gerry — a retired teacher with strong connections to Kilcullen — spends lots more of his time working out there, and writes currently that while the 'security situation is tense', things are stable at the moment.

The background to the line at the beginning of this piece is that it takes €82 to buy 18kg of meat which would feed a stew to all 186 children currently at the home, a Sunday treat that can't always be managed.

"Before I travelled out last year, two local ladies gave me some money 'for the children'. I was able to tell them when I came back that what they gave me ensured that the Shelter kids had nourishing meat meals for three Sundays in a row."

Maintain Hope, since it 'adopted' the orphanage, has built accommodation, sanitation, kitchen, laundry room and a school. In addition it has sent residents to school, on to high school and, in some cases, third level college. "We feed them, medicate and counsel them, hug them and give out to them, just like our own," Gerry O'Donoghue says. "We ARE making a difference, representing those at home who cannot be there, but without whose support and love, we could do nothing."

One of Maintain Hope's annual fundraising events in Kilcullen is coming up shortly, the 'Christmas at Castlemartin' evening held in St Mary's Church, Castlemartin House. The event is held with kind permission of Sir Anthony and Lady O'Reilly, and an eclectic mix of music, readings and song is provided by a variety of people with local connections.

This year it is on Thursday 18 December, beginning at 7.30pm. Tickets can as usual be bought in Bernard Berney Chemists, or by contacting Gerry at on 087-2642887 or maintainhope@gmail.com.

This article was first published on the Kilcullen page of the Kildare Nationalist.