Bóthar founder walks for Rwandan projects

THE co-founder of Irish international aid organisation Bóthar is taking on the walk of his life in aid of those who walk daily for their lives.
Peter Ireton will celebrate his 60th birthday with a 60km fundraising walk, which will take him and supporters along a mostly waterside route from the Clare campus of the University of Limerick to Killaloe and back on Saturday, April 28.
The Limerick man founded Bóthar with farming leader, the late TJ Maher, in 1991 and grew it from a one-off gesture of sending an airlift of cows to Africa to mark the Limerick Treaty 300 celebrations to a charity with a €7 million annual turnover.
The mammoth ‘Siúl Go Dtí Seasca’ will see Peter not alone walking one kilometre for every year of his life but 10km for each of the 6km that, on average, people in the developing world walk every day for water for their basic survival.
Peter is asking as many people as possible to join him on any one of five different legs of the walk or, for those keen enough to take on the complete circuit, the entire 12 to 14-hour trek as he bids to raise funds for Bóthar’s livestock projects in Rwanda.
“We may be experiencing difficult times in Ireland but it’s nothing compared to the hardship of people in the developing world and this 60km walk is our way in Bóthar of showing our support for them in their daily quest for survival,” he said.
“I don’t doubt that a 60km walk in one day is not an easy undertaking but I’m really looking forward to it, not least on my 60th birthday, and I would ask that as many people as possible would join me, old and young, to help raise some sponsorship money for our Rwanda livestock programme.
“As long as 60km is, it is not near as long as how we will stretch the money raised from the walk. This money will go a long way for our Rwanda livestock programme, which commenced 15 years ago. We operate three airlifts of in-calf Irish heifers there each year and the money will ensure this continues,” he explained.
“The difference these airlifts make to families is enormous. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, as we return each year to put the heifers back in calf. We’ve seen families there rise from the most abject, life-threatening poverty you could imagine to not alone being self-sufficient in terms of dairy produce within a few years but selling it as well.
“At a light-hearted level, it’s an opportunity to strike a blow for the silver-haired brigade, as I most definitely intend to show that you’re as old as you feel and that 60 is the new 40,” Peter joked.
Siúl Go Dtí Seasca will commence at UL at 8am on Saturday, April 28 and cross over into Clare via the UL campus, up to the banks of the Ardnacrusha Canal and continue along until O’Briensbridge. It will then veer into the foothills of Slieve Bearnagh, overlooking Killaloe and down into the village itself, before continuing back along a similar route to Limerick.
“We already have a large number of people committed, including a number of high-profile people drawn from the Limerick region. We are hoping to raise a healthy six-figure sum but, more than anything, we need the support of the Limerick, Clare and Tipperary public to do this.
“It’s a wonderful, healthy way to show support for people in one of the most impoverished nations in the world. We will also get the chance to celebrate the amazing scenery and walking amenities we have here on our doorstep in this region,” added Peter.
For further information, contact Peter on 061 338269 or email pete@bothar.ie.