Clonbur support

Huge Effort Two Clonbur men hope to have ten houses built by the end of the year.

Clonbur support for Zambian project

Claire Egan

TEAMWORK is the name of the game as residents of the parish of Clonbur unite with their African counterparts in the town of Kitwe, Zambia for an ambitious house building project.
A visit by Clonbur duo, Dermot Birch and Mike Foley, to Zambia in January of this year made such a profound impact on both men that they decided, with the guidance of Fr Anthony Kelly, to begin building houses in the mining town of Kitwe.
“We had heard so much about Zambia through Fr Padraig Kelly, a native of Corr na Mona who has been teaching in the village of Kabwe for the past number of years. He has been coming home every summer and has told the parishioners in Clonbur and Corr na Mona so much about Zambia. What we saw out there had such a huge impact on us. The country is devastated by AIDS, families are dying, children left as orphans, young girls being forced to work as prostitutes, children sniffing glue, huge poverty and decay,” said Mike.
Through Fr Padraig Kelly, Mike and Dermot came into contact with Fr Anthony Kelly, the Regional Superior of the SMA, who has been based in Kitwe for the past seven years. Fr Kelly, a native of Ballinasloe, discussed with the Clonbur duo the possibility of a large-scale housing project.
To date, two houses have been built at a cost of €6,000 each, while a further five are in the pipeline with €30,000 raised for the construction costs.
Every Sunday, parishioners attending the local church in Clonbur donate the contents of their envelopes to the priest’s collection as well as the Zambia Housing Project. Following a visit by Fr Anthony Kelly to both Clonbur and Cong last weekend, there is now a strong possibility that Cong may also become involved in the fund-raising operation.
“The Clonbur community has been really generous in filling both envelopes at Mass every week, while we have also benefited from private donations. It is our intention to have ten houses built by the end of this year and we need to raise €60,000 altogether, which we are quite confident of doing,” explained Mike, a nurse manager in Clifden.
The funds raised by the Clonbur community are transferred from the local post office to an account in Kitwe. The building project is co-ordinated by Fr Anthony while Belfast engineer, Eamon McAtasney, with a team of fellow volunteers, are entrusted with building the two-bedroom houses.
“By the end of this year we hope to have ten built and the same number again by the end of 2008. In April of 2008 myself and Dermot – who runs Wishbone Construction Company – are returning with a team of tradespeople to teach locals how to build the houses themselves, in turn helping them to become more self-sufficient,” explained Dermot.