Buncrana man to cycle Ireland for Donegal SVP project in Uganda
Kevin Cooley of Buncrana, vice president of St. Vincent de Paul in Donegal, will cycle from Mizen to Malin next month to benefit a society-supported school in Uganda.
Kevin plans to cycle the route solo over seven days and hopes to raise money toward the e20,000 needed to build four classrooms and a canteen for Precious College in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
Each of the 13 St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) regions in Ireland is twinned with a country in Africa, and Donegal has been twinned with Uganda for more than 20 years. The society funds and monitors projects that will make a difference in the lives of poor people there.
Donegal SVP members over the years have built up a special relationship with the Kampala second-level school Precious College. The school enrols nearly 400 students who sit GCSE and A-level examinations that are similar to the education system in the U.K.
Kevin has visited the school twice, most recently in March of this year with SVP’s Mary McGeoghegan of Ballyliffin.
“Because of the input of St. Vincent de Paul, the school now really is a victim of its own success,” said Kevin, who is himself a teacher. “There’s such a big intake now because it is known as such a good school – they can’t meet the demand.” The school buildings have to be expanded, he said. Precious College started in 2004 with up to 100 students.
After the March trip, Kevin and his colleagues started thinking of interesting ways of raising money for the school. While Kevin has always been active in sport, he has not been cycling for that long. But to keep the schedule he has set for his journey, he has been practicing by cycling up to 50 miles a night, four or five nights a week.
“I probably don’t know what I’ve let myself in for,” he said. Kevin’s wife, Elaine, and their daughters Lauren, 8, and Emma, 5, will serve as his support team, travelling in a van with supplies. The plan is to begin Sunday, August 8, at Mizen and make stops at Killarney, Limerick, Galway, Knock, Bundoran, Buncrana and finish with what Kevin called “a short run to Malin Head” on August 15.
Last year Donegal SVP raised enough money from requests to SVP branches to bring eight students and three teachers from Precious College to Donegal. But this year, rather than return to members they are asking the general public to contribute. Kevin said he would be delighted if he could raise half of the construction costs through the sponsored cycle, with more fundraising activities planned for later this year and early 2011.
Kevin has been working with SVP twinning since 2006 and “it has really caught me,” he said. At the end of August he will take over as SVP’s national twinning officer.
He said he has been struck by “what a small amount of money from here can do over there.” For example, he said, it costs about e120 to educate a child for a year in Uganda, including uniforms, education fees and meals.
“It’s not an awful lot,” Kevin said.
He will update the Facebook page, Mizen to Malin SVP to Uganda, each day of his Mizen to Malin trip.
Interested people can donate by sending a cheque made payable to “SVP Twinning Uganda” to SVP Region Office, Meeting House, Raphoe, Co. Donegal tel: (074) 91 73933; through sponsor cards; or on line at www.svp.ie/Fundraisers/kevincooley.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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