Mayo GAA footballer James Carr is supporting the Plant the Planet Games Uganda.

The Ardagh man, currently in the midst of the Mayo GAA Junior Championship, will travel to Uganda in East Africa.

In November, a group of Irish GAA stars and musicians will travel to Uganda as part of a Warriors for Humanity campaign in aid of Self Help Africa.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a real difference", says James Carr, speaking to The Mayo News: "And it's something that I've never done before, and I've never really raised money for anything of this kind of importance."

The general idea of the charity action is the idea is to plant one million trees. Not just trees, but various types of crops, cash crops, and fruit trees, and nuts, and different sort of things that will not only just give the place a boost but also sustain these families for years to come.

An integral part of the project is to train farmers on managing their trees for this purpose. As a result, the trees are looked after and cared for over the years.

Carr explains how he got involved: "I'm honoured to be asked to do it. You don't apply, you get put forward, so it was a nice thing from my peers to put me forward, and then I feel obliged to really push hard and try and do as much as I can for the cause."

The Mayo man is part of a group of GAA players that will take part in only the fourth All-Star, Male and Female game in Africa.

This trip will include ‘Flight of the Swallows’ a group of musicians and dancers from Ireland (including many sports stars) who will participate in an authentic cross-cultural music and dance exchange with our Ugandan hosts.

"And we'll be opening the first official GAA club over there when we go over. The first official GAA club in Uganda."

"I would like to do my bit to try and help out"

"I have a baby girl who is eleven weeks old. And with Ardagh we are deep in the championship, in the semi-final. And also my brother is getting married the week after I'm getting back from Uganda. So I've a lot of stuff on I could do with being around for. I've my job, as well, I'm a full-time teacher at St Muredach's Ballina."

And the Carrs also have a restaurant in Ballina that James helps out with. There's farming as well. He has a lot of moving parts. 

But nevertheless, he couldn't pass the opportunity on.

"I would like to do my bit to try and help out. As you can imagine my wife's first reaction was 'Oh, my god, how are you're going to manage that', but in all fairness, she then said 'You have to go'. She has been brilliant."

It will be a real first for James Carr as he has never been to Africa before. The journey will take place from November 21-28.

Currently, Carr's personal fundraiser stands at almost €2,500. If you wish to donate, you'll find the page here.