A CLARE man is leading the growth of the GAA in Uganda and has also helped to spearhead the raising of close to €60,000 this year alone.
North Clare native John Conroy has been volunteering in Uganda this summer along with eight Clare-based volunteers, Lucy Galvin, Fiona Gilligan, Michelle McNamara, Josephine Ryan, Geraldine Cahir, Joanne O’Sullivan, Johnnie Tynan and Eugene Moroney.
They have had a busy spell coaching GAA, assisting the hospice care team, providing assistance to the teachers in class room and refurbishing a special needs classroom.
Support from the people of Clare to their charity work in Uganda has been constant. This year €58,632 raised and since 2017 over 50 volunteers have volunteered in Uganda with over €265,000 raised in that period. All flights accommodation and living expenses are paid by the volunteers with all funds going direct into the projects.
On top of this, they have managed to establish a GAA club. John told The Clare Echo, “We have founded a new G.A.A. Club named Nile Og Cusacks in Jinja in the Eastern region of Uganda. The club is based in Walukuba West primary School which has an enrolment of over 1300 children. We are concentrating on coaching a group of thirty special needs children of which 28 are deaf. Each afternoon and on Saturday mornings the enthusiastic children gather for one and a half hour coaching sessions.
“The staff and principal are very supportive towards us introducing Gaelic games into the school. It is quite special to focus our attention on the deaf children, being a special needs child in an underdeveloped country is challenging as there is no role in society for the kids, educational facilities and resources are poor and sometime it can be a shame on a family to have a special needs child”.
A big effort has been put in to set the club up and have a structure in place where there is continuity and the children are coached each week throughout the year by a coach and teachers. The next phase of the programme is to begin the gradual introduction of the games to the remainder of the students in the school. Irish dance teaching has also commenced in the school for students from first class to fourth class.
It is also the thirtieth anniversary of the Irish embassy in Uganda and this year has seen major growth in GAA clubs with five clubs now established.
Conroy explained, “There is huge potential for the growth of GAA here , it’s the second youngest population in the world with half of the 50 million population under 16 years. The children have no phones, television, or other games or activities as competition. They have built up natural basic fundamental movements and good levels of strength and conditioning through walking long distances to school and carrying out physical work each day through bringing water from the well, and doing various farm duties like digging , hoeing and preparing for crop planting and harvesting. Even though they had no prior knowledge of G.A.A they have picked up the skills quickly due to having such good athleticism, strength, agility and movement”.
Through the generosity of many sporting clubs, individuals and national schools each child has a pair of football boots, shorts, training tops, jerseys and footballs. Purchasing training gear and footballs are beyond the means of an average Ugandan due to the cost, footballs used tend to be a bag of rubbish tied with a piece of string. School materials, aids and resources were also donated by Clare people to the special needs children. The classroom went under refurbishment with all costs paid by funds raised by the volunteers.
Rays of Hope Hospice Jinja founded in 2005 by retired GPs Frank and Patricia Hassett operates in the Busoga region with a population of five million people in one of the poorest regions in sub Sahara Africa. The hospice is a mobile palliative care service focusing on cancer and other life-limiting diseases. In 2023, 1300 patients were catered for four daily teams travel long distances to meet patients on regular home visits to enrolled patients with stable patients visited monthly. Cervical cancer is the leading cancer in Uganda, comprising 20% of all new cancer cases. In 2023, 38% of women enrolled at the Hospice had cervical cancer, while 27% had breast cancer. Combined, these two diseases accounted for two- thirds of cases among women enrolled with cancer. To reach out to patients, the staff drive an average 12,500 km per month, distances to health centers are long and the absolute poverty and last – mile isolation of the clients means the hospice is often the only hope for treatment and care.
“We were honoured to have Ambassador Kevin and Catherine Colgan to launch Nile Og Cusacks, and view the renovated special needs classroom and other building work the volunteers have completed over the years in the school. The ambassador also visited Rays of Hospice Jinja and was given a presentation by the staff on the vital work they carry out,” John added.
Lucy Galvin, a teacher in Ennis CBS was a first-time volunteer in Uganda this summer. “I had no expectation of what awaited me in Uganda as it was my first time visiting Africa. It was shocking to be faced with such poverty, we were all welcomed openly by the kindest group of people you could come across. I left a fully resourced beautiful classroom of 26 pupils to work in classes that contained 90 children,” she said.
She continued, “The other integral part of out trip involved working with the Hospice as we headed out into the community with the nurses and staff to visit the patients. Although the patients were happy and content you couldn’t help but notice the living conditions were not comparable to anything at home . Many people lived between two small huts one of which held the kitchen and the other a living and sleeping area. The majority of these houses were bare with mattresses strewn on the floor. The locals live day by day yet are the happiest people I have ever come across. I will certainly now take deep breaths when faced with the mundane struggles of home and realise that in the grand scheme of things we are extremely lucky to be living in Ireland”.
