Vintage games fundraiser for Kenyan children

The McNamara family garden in Scariff will be full of comings and goings on Sunday August 4, as the whole clan gather for a novelty fundraiser to help children in the Mukuru Slum in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Organised by Gerry, Carol and Lucy McNamara in their garden by Scariff Harbour, people are invited to A Country Garden Show, which will resurrect some vintage games from long ago.

There will be an agricultural flavour to the day’s events with vintage machinery on display, a cow drop contest and a bonnie baby contest.
The centrepiece of the show will be the lovely couple contest where the chosen finalist couples will battle their wits, teamwork and compatibility on the field and on stage in an effort to lay their claim to the title.

Their skills will be judged by locally renowned lovely couple experts and the public will be given their chance to have the casting vote for the most worthy couple.
All funds raised go to this year’s Niall Mellon Township Trust mission to Kenya. Gerry, Carol and Lucy McNamara, who are all long time volunteers with Niall Mellon intend to participate in the Builders Blitz in October to the Mukuru Slums, Nairobi, Kenya.

Having successfully housed 100,000 shack dwellers in brick houses in the townships of South Africa, this is Niall Mellon’s latest initiative.
Mellon Educate has been launched with the intention of supporting the education of 100,000 children in African countries. In the inaugural Builders Blitz in Kenya the goal is to build two new schools and one medical centre for the children and families of the Mukuru slum.

“The reality of this slum is that sustainable housing is not an option. Families live in appalling conditions.
“Their only hope is through the prospect of educating their children. Currently 3,300 children attend St Catherine’s Primary School and the Reuben Centre where the children are fed each day, usually the only food that they get all day.

“There are medical centres in both schools to care not only for the children but the families from the slum also. The tiny clinic in The Reuben Centre could see over 70,000 people in a year.

“The buildings are overcrowded beyond belief,” Carol outlined.

Sister Mary Killeen of ­Sisters of Mercy, who is the director of Mukuru ­Promotion Centre, is actively involved in running Saint Catherine’s School and will be working closely with Mellon Educate Project in 2013.
The garden events kick off on ­Sunday from 1.30pm until 5.30pm.