Lusaka, Zambia will be the destination of the first Granaghan Outreach trip for 2010, while details of the second trip which is likely to see a return to Kenya in October, are being finalised. Maggie Bradley, Marianne Bradley, Ciara McEldowney, Katie McEldowney, Margaret McEldowney and Denise McGuigan are set to travel in July 2010.

Three of the girls are volunteering for two weeks and the other three are extending their trip for an extra week. The team has been in regular contact with Fr. Martin Mulholland, a Slaughtneil native, who currently works in this area of Zambia. He has been of great assistance and has helped in the quest to find accommodation and confirm itinerary.

The team is planning to visit and provide support to several orphanages and centre’s including The Home Of Joy Orphanage, Little Assisi Orphanage, Umoyo Day Centre, St. Teresa’s Hospice and a school in a new parish, called St. Faustina.

Home Of Joy Orphanage
The Home Of Joy Orphanage which is directed by Sister Ruby, will provide the team’s accommodation.  It is an all girls orphanage, currently with about 50 children ranging from five to fifteen years.  With a constant increase in HIV/AIDS the tradition of staying with extended family cannot hold in many cases and the children have nobody to look after them because of dire poverty.

Many of the children who come to the orphanage suffer from malnutrition and require special food and care.  The orphanage is seen as a real answer to the present problems of so many orphans.  The girls come from nearby disadvantaged areas and many of them have endured physical, emotional or sexual abuse and hardship before coming to the orphanage. Many of their parents would have died because of AIDS or during childbirth.

Home of Joy gives the girls more than food and shelter. Their aim is to provide a home with a family atmosphere, educate the children and integrate them into society.  That is why they are sending all the children to local schools.  Moreover, the orphanage is structured so that the girls are housed in houses containing no more then 10 and each is run by a foster mother. This way the girls get used to living and interacting in a family setting.

The children are also trained in income generating projects such as chicken rearing, keeping rabbits, gardening, fish farming, rosary making, producing artwork and sewing so that they have the skills to be self-sufficient when the time comes for them, to leave Home of Joy.

Little Assisi
Little Assisi is a small Centre catering for orphan children.  Many of them are just very slow learners, not able to grasp the concept of numbers or letters.  Some of the children have hydrocephaly and microcephaly, autistic traits, Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and a number with severe learning disability. Some also have physical problems, such as weakness in their arms and hands, so that they find it difficult to hold and control a pencil.

Umoyo Day Centre
Umoyo Day Centre, care for 96 orphans aged 4-7 years.  Some of the children have a parent but are generally raised by extended family.  The families often cannot provide for the children so the offers education and two meals per day five days per week.

St. Teresa’s Hospice
St. Teresa’s Hospice, a hospice run by Mother Teresa Sisters, provides care to people with serious medical diagnoses.  It has been described as a vibrant, self-contained community of individuals working together in hope, dignity, and kindness as they face challenges almost unimaginable outside the complex wall.

St.Faustina
The school the team intend to assist, is a newly formed school in a very poor compound in the St.Faustina parish. The school is just starting and has a nursery class as well as classes Grade 1-4.  It was started by a priest, Fr.Brendan Mc Carron, native of Castlederg.