Marion O'Reilly, flanked by volunteers, hands over cheque to Aileen Coney   click to enlarge	The Society in Cookstown have kept their pledge to help finance an SVP "Dam Building Project" in Ghana by donating £10k.   Conference president Marion O'Reilly handed over the cheque to regional administrator Aileen Coney at their weekly meeting on 16th May 2007; the proceeds of a sale of SVP property in the town.   The Immaculate Conception Cookstown SVP are "twinned" with Our Lady of the Rosary conference in Kumasi, a large town north of Accra in Ghana, Africa.   click to enlarge
The conference also contributed a substantial amount to the SVP sharing fund for use by poorer, less well off conferences in Northern Ireland to help tackle the effects of poverty closer to home.   Dam Project at Kordiabe The area of Kordiabe is a very poor region and is one of the outposts of Fr Andy Campbell's parish, Good Shepherd, Tema. There has been a dam at Kordiabe for a long time but it was never maintained and has been allowed to reduce to levels so low that it is totally ineffective. A project has been undertaken to raise the dam and irrigate vast amounts of surrounding land, thus enabling the growth of crops. The local SVP have been allocated 5 acres of land and have already started clearing it since our team from Northern Ireland visited last August. read more...   Fr Andy Campbell (right) with Larry McArdle Kordiabe Dam Ghana Map Local kids Mango Tree   click on any image to enlarge   The plan is to grow mango trees which, in addition to giving employment to local people, will produce much needed finance for conference work when the fruit is harvested and sold. The £10k from Cookstown will help support the employment of those clearing the land and to buy trees and other equipment required to stock and maintain it.
find out more about our work in Ghana...here...