October - 2004

BR JEROME ELLENS SUPERIOR GENERAL BR EDWARD MCCARTHY COUNSELLOR

BR PETER RYAN VICAR GENERAL BR JAMES O'ROURKE COUNSELLOR

The outreach project that I will talk about is that ofEldoret Harambee Secondary school. In the middle Sixties there was a great demand, as there is now, for education. As usual many students who had completed primary education were denied places in secondary schools because of poor results.

Many parents felt that if given a second chance most of these would improve and achieve something in life. They collected some money and approached the then Bishop ofEldoret, Houlihan, and requested him to help them purchase and manage a school -Goan primary school was available at the time- four classrooms an office block and sanitation. He readily assisted and approached the Patrician Brothers through the General, Brother Francis Redmond, to give Brothers to administer the school which would be private. Don't you know such things could not  be decided immediately and took some time. The parents with the help of a Kiltegan Father went ahead with the project but delayed the opening for a year so that they could hear something  from the Brothers. Word finally came that in September 1967 two Brothers would be available. In February 1967 the school opened with a Kiltegan Father in charge.

In September 1967 Brother Tom Grogan and Brother Marcellus Broderick became the first Patricians in the school, Tom as headmaster. Since then many Patricians have served in the school for varying periods, Francisco Murphy, Edward McCarthy, Kieran Coghlan, Gerry Breen (RIP), Joseph Doheny (RIP), John Gallagher (RIP), John Fitzpatrick (RIP), WIllie Carroll, Eliud Kimathi, Pat O'Neill and at present Leo Cheruvil and Tom Muldowney.

Outreach to the poor is a daunting task. It is a vocation in itself Dealing with the underprivileged has so many factors. Slow or poor learners, little attention is given to them in Primary School, coming from poor homes in slum areas, lacking the basic facilities of running water or electricity, living in overcrowded rooms, broken homes, one-parent families, exposed to widespread abuses like stealing, drugs and immoral behaviour, uninterested parents.

Having started with the slow learners we now seem to be taking more and more from deep below the poverty line  as well as those who have lost their parents from HIV Aids. What we are doing is only the tip of the iceberg.  Breakfast and lunch has no meaning for many of our students. They depend on one meal a day if they are lucky. The extended family helps in paying some of their fees as well as house rent. Government bursaries are available to bright students entering secondary schools but not for the others - so we do not benefit.

However it gives great satisfaction to see the face of students brightening up when they are told that they can 
continue with their studies because some money has been donated by some kind person.

The first task when these rejected students enter the school is to shore up their confidence and make them believe in themselves. We have created an environment to help them see themselves as people with potential to do better. Teachers are encouraged to reach down to the student level and guide them slowly through the syllabus knowing that they will not have the course covered in time.

Our teachers are a dedicated group. They work for a lower salary than their government counterparts. More than half of them have been in the school for at least 10 years. Many are ex -students of the school. They have demonstrated that the good things oflife must not always go to the better-endowed, even the slum poor deserve our generosity. Guidance and counselling and motivation are used to good effect. It is impressed on the students that education is the only way for them to get out of the slums, and that the second chance they are getting should be made use of to the full.

During their first two years in school each class attends a seminar on 'Education for Life' given by personnel from the Diocese ofEldoret. This is a three-day programme and deals with behaviour in the community, evil of drugs, sex education and the risk of becoming a victim ofHIV Aids. Over the rest of their schooling they receive lectures from medical and church personnel as well as from AIDS sufferers and many others.

A very large percentage of ex -students are engaged in gainful employment in universities, teacher-training colleges, primary and secondary schools, in the medical field, lawand agriculture and some become priests, Brothers and Sisters. Many are employed as accountants, school bursars and accounts clerks among others. The school has a good reputation for producing honest material. However we also turn out a number of crooks in keeping with gospel maxims.

F or the most part students are very thankful for the help they have been given and it is common to see old boys and girls bringing their children to the school at weekends to show them where they studied. When they meet their former teachers they really show their appreciation. Even some bring children of grandchildren for admission.

Over the years educational authorities and politicians have suggested that this school should become government sponsored and take in bright students since our results are so encouraging. However the sponsor, Catholic Bishop of Eldoret, the Board of Management and the parents have requested that we continue with the ideal for which it was founded - to give the underprivileged a second chance. Often public officials cast demeaning remarks on schools of this nature leaving teachers and pupils very dispirited as a result.

The project was an instant success and down through the years has maintained a position in the district above most of the government schools, always in the first 20. There are more than 90 schools in the district. 25 of 90 students qualified for university in 2003. In all there are 500+ students in the school. Many of our teachers are invited to set and moderate District exams each year. It can be clearly seen that this school was involved in an outreach to the poor long before it was mentioned in Chapter documents.

All the school requirements - teacher salaries, textbooks, exercise books, laboratory equipment as well as maintenance comes ftom school fees. These also have to cater for buildings and other developments. Collecting fees is a major struggle and they are generally paid in bits-and-pieces. There are some who are extremely needy and we try to assist them where possible. We have succeeded in getting sponsors for some and many projects initiated by the Irish Provincials have helped greatly. Students pray for their benefactors every day.

Now the AIDS pandemic has reached us. Many children lose one or both parents during their primary or secondary schooling. The extended family does its best for the victims during their illness. This together with funeral expenses leaves them drained of their meagre wealth. They will do everything possible to keep the orphan fed and clothed but they cannot manage school fees. Others in the family mayalso be victims. To select students for assistance we work , through the parish priests, Chiefs, Head person of an estate, primary school teachers etc to get as much information as possible into the background of those suggested for help. We select what we consider the most pressing cases. It is difficult and painful to refuse. To protect their dignity, the identity of those assisted is not made public. We do not take group photos of them either. Even their classmates and teachers may not know that they are assisted. At the present time 40 students, both boys and girls, are assisted in full or in part, our gratitude goes to the Irish Provincial and his communities who have really taken this project to heart.

We aim to set up a Trust Fund with the help of the Brothers and the past pupils of the school to assist more 
unfortunate children. The ones we are now assisting are catered for over their remaining years in school.

For a few fleeting moments just a month before I was due to leave for the General Chapter of 2004 I thought I was destined never to see the day. As I cycled along at my daily exercise an emerging car loomed ominously into my vision. It became a blur as I was hurled from my bicycle and on to its bonnet. As I lay recovering on the roadside, surrounded by the inquisitive onlookers who always seem to come out of nowhere on these occasions, I came to the realisation that there were no bones broken and that even East Africa would be a possibility after all. It was only after reaching our destination that I became conscious of the fact that a decision had been taken shortly after the 
Chapter of' 98 to hold the next General Chapter in Kenya- a decision that had already set the scene and envisioned what one of the main themes and direction of the present Chapter would be.

It was good to have arrived some time before the formal work of the Chapter was begun. It gave time to settle in,  become acclimatised and absorb the atmosphere of our new surroundings. It gave time too to visit the different places of work and see the projects being run and supported by our African Brothers. We already have on paper the Ideal - the option for the poor - but a visit to Kibera, where we saw this ideal being incarnated, was at once edifying and challenging. For me it brought into stark relief the seemingly insurmountable inequality that exists. True, the poor are always with us, but these initiatives by the Brothers are real practical ways of tackling a problem of mammoth proportions. One's mind and thoughts went back to the first Brothers in the hovels of Tullow in pre- Emancipation Ireland in 1808. Surely these ministries in Kibera and Kabongo are "re- founding" in the best sense of the word.

And so to the Chapter itself. The location and setting were well suited to the occasion. It was evident that the Kamagut Brothers had worked long and hard to have the venue in magnificent shape and had spared no pains to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. Again it was an example of what dedicated and persevering toil is accomplishing in Kenya.

Though a great deal of preparation had been done prior to the Chapter, it fell to the delegates to process and refine all the material. At first this seemed an enormous undertaking. We were fortunate in having a very excellent  facilitator and this, along with the know-how of the' old hands' , who had been before, kept us on track. I must admit that we were some way into the process before I was fully aware of what we were about. However through dogged 
detennination and application to the task, through engaging in intenninable group work, by visiting and re-visiting the evolving drafts, by brainstonning, sometimes rejecting, sometimes accepting but always listening and critiquing each word and phrase, our first efforts became more and more refined so that we could truly say at the end we were "One in Heart and Mind". We who were engaged in the process will be convinced of the authenticity of the outcome having been so much a part of it.

All this was interspersed with inspiring liturgies and prayers, each group bringing its own richness, variety and individuality to the occasion. Particularly enlightening and instructive for me as a westerner - and I suppose I speak for others as well- were the chants and rites from the Indian tradition and who will ever forget the vitality and  celebratory atmosphere of the African Eucharist with its spectacular dancing and joyous singing.

The process of discernment and preparation for the selection of the new Leadership Team were so efficiently done that the choice presented no great difficulty in the end.

The opportunity to attend my first Chapter was for me a great privilege and a very enriching experience. The 
genuine warmth of the welcome accorded to us was tangible and reassuring. The happiness and positivity of the Brothers in the African Region were infectious and heart wanning. The exhilaration,joy, camaraderie and conviviality of the community experience, in all its cultural diversity, is a memory to be cherished as well as an ideal to strive for and recreate. Has the evident happiness and fulfilment of the many Brothers living out the spirit of the Breastplate in a Third World setting lessons for us living with the surfeit of the Celtic Tiger?

Readers may be interested in the following letter received from a former pupil of Patrician College, Finglas, Dublin.

At a time when there is a general decline in a commitment to faith and disaffection towards the institutional church it is refreshing to read that a former pupil is "still a practising Catholic, almost fervent". It gives further authenticity to the oft-quoted words of Oscar Romero:

"We plant seeds that one day will grow. 
We water seeds already planted, 
knowing that they hold future promise."

Photo: Br Cormac Commins (L) and Br Fidelis O'Connor
 
 
 

28 June 2004
Dear Br Fidelis and Br Cormac,

I'm hoping you'll remember me - Patrick Dundas - Patrician College, Finglas, way back! How do I jog your memory? Started a year early in 1974 I think, moved from B to A class in 2nd, played chess, music- usually led the school band, did Latin up to Inlet:, dropped for Tech Drawing in Leaving (yes I am sorry Br Cormac!), got 6 Hons in Leaving Cert in 1979... was in the same class as O'Connor; Shields, Ronnie Whelan .... Well I'm hoping you both remember me now!

I just wanted to write to you both and thank you for your fabulous dedication to teaching in Finglas all those years ago. Not every pupil appreciated it at the time - no doubt some still don'1 - but I did at the time and even more so now. With kids of my own and now one going to primary, I can see the same complete commitment and dedication isn't there, especially in secular schools. Despite little resources you managed to run a well-disciplined school and keep high standards. Bt: Cormac, I don '1 know how you kept discipline, but that you did. And Br Fidelis, your manner of making difficult maths seem easy was legendary and you got so many through honours while helping  them enjoy it as opposed to having to do it. The Latin I learned has helped me with languages, and I'm semi-fluent in French.

I'm now living in England; happily married to an IrishlEnglish girl and we have 2 fabulous kids, girl (5) and boy (2). I went on to study Electronic Engineering at Kevin Street, got a degree, started my career in design electronics, and many years down the line, am a Chartered Engineer and a senior consultant in a large US company providing computer expertise to the Pharmaceutical industry. I've kept the music going, studying Church Organ at the school of music, then in the UK, played keyboards in jazz bands, then musical director of various bands. I kept very fit -running mostly - until the kids arrived (didn'1 get married until 35), now  they take up all my spare time, and already they are showing lots of talent, especially in music. My mum still lives in Finglas, my dad passed away recently at 93 (RIP). I've been back to Finglas numerous times every year since leaving Ireland in 1989, and occasionally I pass the old school and it brings back lots of memories. Not all good ones of course as the boys weren'1 always the best-behaved, but then they didn't all have the best of chances at home either.

I'm sorry to learn that Brother Peter left the Order.  He was great too, and loved music so much. I'd love to 
get in contact with him too, but no doubt that won'1 be possible.

I hope you are both enjoying a happy and healthy retirement. I 've kept you all in my prayers over the years (yes I'm still a practising Catholic, almost fervent! - unusual in England) - you might keep the Dundas family in yours. I 'm so grateful for all you have done for me, and I wanted you to know that, and not to think everyone took it all for granted or forgot about you. You 'll never be forgotten.

Always in my prayers. God Bless
Patrick Dundas, B. Sc(Eng), MI.E.I., C. Eng.

Maurice Murphy	Raymond Forde	Edwin Guidera
Camilus Regan	Fr Kevin Mulcahy	Cuthbert Nolan

St Prick's Boy's Primary School, Galway, celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2004. It was an amalgamation of the Primary schools at Nuns' Island and the Old Monastery School, Lombard Street. Six members of the original, 1st April 1954, teaching staff survive.  You see them pictured above.

	The 2004 General Chapter
Bishop Kori planting tree	Chapter group with Bishop Kori	Br Philip pops a question
	Left:  The new Delany Hall, Kamagut Right: Aengus with Patrick's  Iten class
	Some Kenyan Missions
David and his Kibera clinic	David in his Kibera clinic	Enthusiasm in Kabonga class
Tea at Kabonga school	Break at Kibera school	Cormac walks a Kibera street