Assisting Kenyan girls to get an education

An association established some years ago between a band club and a community of nuns, which runs missions in various countries, has proved to be beneficial to poor children in Kenya.

Together they organise the annual Concert for Kenya to raise funds to enable the Daughters of the Sacred Heart to provide secondary education to girls and to care for orphans whose parents died of AIDS.

Sr Pauline Farrugia, who had spent 22 years working in the missions and is now responsible for the community's missions, said it is the Sacred Heart's priority to assist in the secondary education of girls in the Nairobi area.

"This is because the authorities there tend to concentrate on educating boys," she said as she launched this year's fourth fund-raising concert by the Youth Band of the Sliema Philharmonic Society.

The concert by the 30-strong band will be held at Sir Temi Zammit Hall of the University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq on January 28 and 29 at 7.30 p.m.

"We believe it is our mission to help girls in Kenya get their education and that is why we started building the Sacred Heart School in Mpeketoni," Sr Farrugia said.

The school is still under construction but in the meantime, the sections that are ready are being used to teach 96 Kenyan girls.

She said the school project is estimated to cost about Lm280,000 and more than Lm50,000 is still needed to complete the school, possibly by next year. When the school is ready, it will cater for secondary education, which in Kenya is spread over four years.

Sr Farrugia said the Daughters of the Sacred Heart also need funds to run two homes for 100 young orphans of parents who died of AIDS. The homes are at Limuru and Satellite.

The public can help by sponsoring a child by donating Lm5 each month to the nuns to cover education, food and other needs. In fact, there are about 500 Kenyan children sponsored by Maltese people.

Donations can be sent to Sr Pauline Farrugia at 100, St Therese Convent, Gorg Borg Olivier Street, Mellieha or deposited in APS Bank account 10224513044.

Admission to the concert on both days is Lm3 per person, but patrons will be welcome to make donations. Sr Farrugia appealed for volunteers to work in Kenya during the forthcoming "work visit" which the nuns will make to Kenya in July this year.

Anyone interested can contact Sr Farrugia at the convent or through pawlafarr@yahoo.com.

The Sacred Heart Sisters run other missions in India and South Korea.