Callan students head for Kenya to bring hope - and 700 sports jerseys!

Click NEXT to see more photographs and scroll down to read more... All photographs thanks to Harry Reid

A group of students and teachers from Callan’s Coláiste Abhainn Rí are all set to travel to Kenya over their Easter break.
They will be undertaking the journey as part of their Kenya Immersion Project where they will learn about the culture while delivering the proceeds of their fundraising to a local project.

The Callan group will also be bringing almost 700 sports jerseys with them to share among the students of the Edmund Rice Catholic Education Centre students, in Embulbul, Kenya.

The jerseys were collected in the local community in recent months and are just part of a major fundraising campaign run by the students.

Five teachers will accompany the 15 students, five boys and 10 girls on the trip that has been almost a year in the preparation.
As Transition Year students, last year, the students applied for the Immersion Programme. They were chosen before the end of the school year and fundraising began almost immediately.

Each of the students had to organise individual fundraising as well as group events. From carwashes to bake sales, table quizzes and non-uniform days, and even busking outside the Tholsel in Kilkenny City, the group have been hard at work and have raised almost €38,000.

The students went back to their former primary schools to organise non-uniform day fundraisers and held church-gate collections in their home parishes. A lot of work has gone into the project with great support from the schools, parishes, families and friends. Click NEXT to read on and see photographs of the farewell evening for the group...