Building of Hope Charity

Mission Statement

The Building of Hope Project brings practical help, education support and care to young people in The Third World. From our World of plenty, we devote our generosity, our time and our talents to give to those who are less well off.

The "Building of Hope" project began with a vision of hope. Hope of a better life for those living in dire poverty in Africa, for those ravaged by the HIV virus or lacking facilities for education and health. We are a group of Volunteers that help the people of Africa by giving what we take for granted.

All staff, from Directors all the way down to project volunteers, work on a completely voluntary basis & the charity is completely donation led. All money raised and donated goes directly into our projects in Africa. We receive no additional funding.

The Building of Hope Ltd was set up in December 2008 as an Irish Registered Charity. The current Directors are, James Lynch, Mary Howard, Allen Flynn and Maureen McCarthy. The Building of Hope volunteers and friends aim to bring practical help, educational support and care to young people in the world.

"Sometimes it falls upon a Generation to be great. You can be that Generation", Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

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An African Story

A mother of nine loses her husband, two of her children are completely blind; one is severely disabled and is unable to walk. Eight out of her nine children have several, severe disabilities. What can she do? She cannot support these children herself, there is no one to turn to and no assistance is provided by her government or her local community. She is left with no alternative but to bring two of her children to the “Likoni School for the Blind”.

She has travelled four days with her father and is currently breast feeding her youngest child. The children arrive with two toothbrushes, soap and one change of clothes each; their only possessions. After their long journey to Likoni she has to turn around and travel home leaving her two children, not knowing when she will see them again but knowing they are within a better environment, a place in which they will receive a good education, a bed to sleep in and food to eat. These are things she knows she would never be able to provide.

They say goodbye and although it is a language foreign to us, their body language speaks to us loudly; crying, hugging and saying a painful goodbye. The children will be ok and will settle into their new home. Their mother may not settle as easily as she has to walk away from her children, not knowing when she will see their faces again and it will always remain in her heart that she could not provide for her babies.

The majority of blindness within Kenya is due to malnutrition from the mother which is passed through to her children. There is no education provided to these families on basic nutrition during pregnancy. The question I asked is why these families are having so many children when they cannot provide for them this is again due to no education being provided on family planning.

When a women has an unhealthy child, or children as in this case, it is a great shame and is looked down upon in the community at large. The mother will continue to reproduce until she has a healthy child, which is uncommon and so the cycle continues.

What remains common is this unfortunate story!