Galway GAA star Alan Kerins travelled to Mongu in early 2005 for a three-month voluntary stint as a chartered physiotherapist in the local centre for physically disabled children. What he witnessed in the Western Zambian town triggered a fundraising campaign that has grown wings, helping change lives and futures forever. There is a saying about small acorns and great oaks; this clearly applies to Alan Kerins' extraordinary charity work in Zambia's Western Province. Kerins would be well known to readers of this magazine as the outstanding dual performer who has represented Galway in football and hurling with distinction for a decade or more. Recently, however, the gifted Salthill/Knocknacarra and Clarinbridge clubman has selflessly instigated a magnificent charity initiative that places everything he has achieved on the pitch very much in the shade. The Alan Kerins African Projects have taken off in just two short years and the Galway man's vision and energy are making a huge difference to thousands of lives in the beleaguered towns of Mongu and Kaoma in Western Zambia. The charity is now a huge part of his life but still Alan - who also works as a full-time physio at the Merlin Park Hospital in Galway - intends to make himself fully available for Ger Loughnane's senior county hurling panel in 2007. It promises to be a hectic year for one of the GAA's finest ambassadors - a man honoured with an ESB REHAB People of the Year award last September in recognition of his extraordinary charity work. It was in January 2005 that Alan's physiotherapy skills first took him to Mongu, the main township of the Western Province of Zambia, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Here, he worked with severely physically disabled children in a Cheshire Home, run by Sister Cathy Crawford from Laois. Once he saw first hand the trials these people are subjected to on a daily basis, Alan was simply unable to forget their plight and he has subsequently invested much of his energies into doing as much as he can to alleviate their suffering. He returned to Mongu last March (only a few days after winning an All-Ireland club football championship medal), accompanied by a documentary crew, to see how the projects were progressing, travelling from the teeming chaos and shanty towns of Zambia's capital Lusaka to the serenity of the Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The documentary aired on TV3 in December. It showed Kerins visiting the poverty-stricken villages of Western Zambia and the local hospital, a rusted old wreck packed beyond capacity. His projects have built houses and provided clean water, fed the people in time of famine and helped children orphaned by the Aids pandemic that has decimated a continent. In the poorest region of the fourth poorest nation in Africa, the Alan Kerins African Projects are giving people the chance to make a life for themselves. The ongoing funding of the Cheshire Home for physically disabled children is one of the project's major goals. This is the only facility of its kind in an area two and a half times the size of Ireland. Sister Cathy has no funding from the Irish or Zambian authorities and without her home the children in her care would simply not survive. Thus, every little bit of support - no matter how small - the Alan Kerins African Projects can generate is absolutely vital. As well as childcare and rehabilitation, the other projects that make up this charity include food aid, school building (and education), AIDS orphans, water schemes and housing developments. At the peak of the drought that afflicted the Western Province of Zambia in 2004 and 2005, funds provided by the Alan Kerins African Projects fed over 700 families in the region. Since the drought has subsided the aim of the charity has been to promote and fund more sustainable solutions. In Kaoma, two hours from Mongu in the Western Province of Zambia, there is a home and shelter for orphans and vulnerable children run by Presentation Sister Mary Vianney. Many of the children were orphaned as a result of the AIDS epidemic currently gripping the country. One Project is currently funding the building of a school for these children, who currently number over 500. When Alan first travelled to Zambia in February 2005, the Western Province was enduring one of the worst droughts in living memory. Access to water for many families involved walking great distances to reach unreliable and unclean sources. The Alan Kerins African Projects have provided funds in order to sink modern and effective bore holes in the region and to redevelop local wells so as to provide local access to clean drinking water and to provide a water source to irrigate land in times of drought, and thus to prevent famine. Under the auspices of the Cheshire Home, a food programme for the sick and elderly has been established to help ease the threat of famine. A block building project was also instigated to assist with the construction of a series of new houses for local families and an irrigation project has created a proper water supply for 1,000 families. Funding is now in place to purchase agricultural essentials such as oxen, tilling implements and seed, and also to help educate the locals on farming techniques so that they can learn to provide enough food for themselves. The innovative block-making project continues apace and this will have a huge impact on the provision of housing. It is practical improvements like these that make all the difference to the people of the region. In many ways, the charity has taken over Alan's life. His name is attached to it and he has placed the legal structures around the initiative now known as Alan Kerins African Projects. Eleven directors help run the charity and the Galway GAA star says his ongoing workload is eased considerably by the delegation of responsibilities. But work is ongoing. There is still severe poverty to tackle in the Western Province. Education is vital if kids are to escape and build lives for themselves. Short-term solutions are not enough and Alan aims to put structures in place to provide medium- and long-term assistance. The block-building programme is gathering pace all the time and the locals are becoming educated in more effective farming techniques. A Development Consultant is being sent over. The rains that fell last year were a Godsend but money is the most important gift these people need. The response to the Alan Kerins African Projects has already been phenomenal and Alan is hoping people will continue to support the cause: "I can't walk away. There are a lot of people depending on our help. When you see the difference a little bit of money can make, it really opens your eyes. "When you experience the suffering and death first-hand, it stays with you. You can't forget. Here, we take things for granted and we have so much. It's hard to believe that such a different world exists just a nine-hour flight away…" In Ireland, we don't know how good we have it. Another Christmas of extraordinary indulgence has passed. We ate, drank and were merry. We watched the darts and kept in touch with the Premiership. Meanwhile, the plight of the people of Zambia continues. Just a small contribution can make an enormous difference to these people but would have little or no effect on our own livelihoods… www.alankerins.ie email: [email protected] Alan Kerins African Projects c/o Alan Kerins Weir Road Kilcolgan County Galway Tweet

Most Read Stories