There was a real buzz of excitement in the air when the group of St. Michael’s students visiting Mukuru had their final meeting on Tuesday 11th June. Thirteen students and five teachers will travel to Nairobi on 21st June for an eight days immersion experience in Mukuru. During their visit they will work in the primary schools of the Mukuru slums and experience the reality of life for some of the most underprivileged people in Kenya. They will present the Mercy Order with a cheque for £20,000, raised by the students of St. Michael’s in the past academic year. The money will go towards the building of a residential centre for street boys in Nairobi. This project aims at getting teenage boys off the dangerous streets of Nairobi – the residential centre will provide much needed accommodation as well as job skills training to enable the boys to support themselves. The students travel with the best wishes and support of the whole school community. We wish them a safe journey.

St. Michael’s students travelling to Mukuru, will take with them a little piece of Northern Ireland. Students have been busy collecting football tops from local primary schools and football clubs. They have amasses a large collection of Gaelic and soccer tops which are sure to be well received by the Mukuru community who take a real interest in all kinds of football. The students would like to thank all those children and their parents and local schools who have donated their tops towards this cause.

Congratulations and many thanks to all our students, staff and parents – indeed the whole school community on the tremendous effort this year for Mukuru - The target figure of £20,000 has been achieved.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who helped in any way to raise this money. The fundraising work undertaken by St. Michael’s means that work has started on the building of the new Mary Immaculate Residential Home for street boys in Nairobi. This new Home will provide much needed shelter, a bed and washing facilities for the Street Boys of Nairobi. The young boys will have basic skills training and an education which hopefully will better equip them for life in the future.

To all our students, staff, parents and sponsors who organised 24 hour fasts, participated in sponsored walks, bed pushes, cake sales, table quiz nights, bag packs, bought or sold cards, attended concerts and bought tickets for raffles, or involved themselves in any other ways in our fundraising- we wish to express our deep gratitude. The thirteen students and staff who will be visiting Mukuru this June 2008 will bring with them, the prayers and best wishes from the students of St Michael’s and the people of Lurgan.

Fund raising in support of St. Michael’s Mercy Mission to Mukuru has got off to a great start in Term I. Over £10,000 was raised through a variety of activities organised by the school. The most successful ventures were the bag packs at Sainsbury’s store in Rushmere and Marks and Spencer’s at Sprucefield.. We are indebted to those businesses who allow us to run a bag pack on their premises. Mukuru card sales were good, students bought and sold Mukuru wristbands, the sponsored fast was well supported and the choir raised over £600 singing to the Christmas shoppers. These were just some of the many different activities that took place in the first term. The committee are delighted by the very positive response to the appeal and would like to thank all those who contributed in anyway to the fundraising efforts. This year’s fundraising target is £20,000 which the committee hope will be achieved by June 2008. It will require sustained efforts from the school community; however we confident we will be able to response to the challenge of raising the next £10,000! All monies raised go directly to the MMM fund, nothing is spent on administration. This is a real opportunity for students to help make a real difference to the lives of some of the most disadvantaged children and their families in Africa.

This week St. Michael’s has launched the sales of Mukuru Cards to support its African project. The cards are a collection of images drawn by African children. A packet of 10 cards contains double prints of five African images. The cards are simple but very attractive; they are left blank for your own message. They are on sale at £5 per packet. Cards can be purchased from any student in the school or by contacting the school directly by phone or e-mail.

St Michael’s was delighted to welcome the Sisters of Mercy who had travelled to Ireland recently. Sr.Liz Fletcher and Sr Maria were welcomes to the school by Mr McGivern, Director of St. Michael’s Mukuru Project which was established to support the work done by the Sisters in the Mukuru Promotion Centre in Nairobi. This is Year 2 of the project. St. Michael’s is committed to building an orphanage to take 50 boys off the streets of Nairobi. The Sisters were delighted to accept a cheque for £20,000, collected by the community of St Michaels between September 06 and June 07. The fund raising target for this academic year is £20,000. Students and staff are currently fundraising and look forward with confidence to achieving their target by the end of the year.

St. Michael’s Students off to Mukuru

There was a great sense of excitement when the selection of students and staff to travel to Mukuru in March 2008 was announced recently. 13 students will travel with five members of staff, to experience for themselves the realities of life in an African shanty town. Students and staff will be working in support of the Mukuru project during their time in Nairobi. The students were introduced to the Mukuru Sisters who visited the schools recently. The experience of speaking with the Sisters has heightened student awareness of the issues they will face in Mukuru and encouraged them in their fundraising endeavours.

Four Teachers from St. Michael’s travelled to Nairobi, Kenya on a week long visit at the beginning of June 2007. During the visit they looked at development projects and identified ways in which St. Michael’s could support work undertaken by the Sisters of Mercy in the slum district of Mukuru.

They laid the foundations for the Mukuru Project which the school intends to develop in the coming years. Mr. McGivern, Director of the Mukuru Project was joined by Mrs Haughey, Mrs Murphy and Mr Taggart. All members of the team were looking forward to the visit and hoped to be able to respond positively to the challenges of life in Mukuru. This visit is the start of a meaningful working relationship between the Sisters of Mercy in Kenya and St Michaels. Here is the story of their travels.

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