Ballynacally woman’s charity work in Ethiopia

BALLYNACALLY’S Geraldine Kelly has recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia with the international children’s charity, Plan Ireland.
While in East Africa, Geraldine witnessed first hand the impact emergency relief provided by the organisation is having on those affected by the current food crisis in the region.
Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa region in general, came into focus earlier this year when there was widespread media coverage of the urgent food crisis and drought that took hold of the region. Plan Ireland is an international children’s charity with a substantial long-term presence in Ethiopia.
Geraldine, who is director of the business consultancy Xi Ventures, has been a board member of Plan Ireland since 2008 and was keen to visit the region to see the work being done, especially in the areas of education, food security, energy projects and microfinance.
“Plan Ireland has been working on the ground in Ethiopia since 1974, so we are firmly established there and our support of women and children in the country has remained steadfast,” Geraldine said. “My visit to Ethiopia with Plan was truly inspiring and eye opening. It was so heartening to see the work and dedication of the medical staff in the therapeutic feeding centre in Taza, who look after severely malnourished children on a daily basis,” she added.
“In addition to this, we were able to visit a number of long-term projects that Plan is running in the area to improve the health and well-being of children and their families in the community, including creating access to clean water and improving cooking facilities with smart sustainable energy projects,” Geraldine pointed out.
Plan Ireland’s East Africa Crisis Appeal is supporting emergency feeding centres, where women and children receive essential food rations. Plan Ireland will support the running of the therapeutic feeding centre for the next six months and will continue to provide food rations to the poorest families in the area.
“Plan Ireland has been appealing to the Irish and international community not to forget Ethiopia. The reality of the current situation is that many people are still short of food and depend on essential food rations. There are still starving children lying in therapeutic feeding centres,” David Dalton CEO of Plan Ireland said.
For more information or to donate to Plan Ireland’s East Africa Crisis Appeal visit www.plan.ie or contact Plan Ireland, 126 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2 or call freephone 1800 829829.