8th Feburary 2012
Mourne Challenge 2012
The 2012 Mournes Challenge will take place on Sunday 1st to Monday 2nd April 2012 with 18 Year 12 student being selected, three from each form group. This challenge will involve climbing the Mourne Mountains before setting up camp and staying overnight in the Mournes. Students are accompanied by trained and experienced staff. If selected, each student will complete a sponsorship form and raise £100. We will travel from St Michael’s to the Mournes by bus. Pupils should be wearing warm clothes, suitable footwear and are asked to bring a high energy packed lunch to eat at the summit on the Sunday. An evening BBQ meal as well as breakfast is provided. Students must be medically and physically fit for the challenge and if necessary gender balance and School attendance and punctuality will be taken in to consideration for short listing. As part of the selection process the students are asked to write a short paragraph (maximum 100 words) about their reasons for wanting to take part in the challenge. This must be returned by Monday 13th February to the Office or emailed to me. They will also need to fill in a Medical and Consent Form (if selected) and participate in weekly training on a Tuesday after school.
25th January 2012
Thank you to Drumnamoe Nursery School
Thanks to the Principal Mrs Fiona McDonald and all the staff at Drumnamoe Nursery school who made a very generous contribution to the Mukuru Fund. The money was raised in lieu of staff presents from parents at Christmas 2011.
11th January 2012
Birthday Donation
Thanks to Year 12 student Peter Reid (12D) who celebrated his 16th birthday recently. Peter decided to donate £100 that he received from his family and friends for his 16th birthday to Mercy Mission to Mukuru. Well done Peter and Thank you.
11th January 2012
Christmas Tesco Bag Pack
On Thursday 22nd, Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th December, Mukuru Team 2012 students spent 3 very busy days bag packing in Tesco’s new Craigavon branch to raise funds for MMM. As it was the festive season, business was overwhelmingly hectic and the students were kept busy with a constant stream of customers passing through the till points. The students were well rewarded for their efforts. We would like to thank Tesco Craigavon, Mrs Heaney and their customers for allowing us this opportunity to fundraise for Mukuru 2012.
11th January 2012
£100 worth of Driving Lessons
Anthony Hendron School of motoring has very generously donated £100 of driving vouchers to be raffled to raise funds for Mukuru. Members of Team 2012 are selling tickets to Year 13 and Year 14 students cost £1.
20th December 2011
Mukuru Sports Draw
St Michael’s will be running a fantastic sports memorabilia draw in the new year. The attached photo shows 2 jerseys that will be included in the draw. One is a Glasgow Celitc jersey signed by last year’s Scottish cup champions and the other a signed Glenavon jersey. A lot of thanks must go to Eddie Drury {middle} for donating these jerseys. The money raised will go towards St Michael’s Mercy Mission to Mukuru project. The MMM project is similar to others Eddie has been involved in where he has helped raised in excess of £750,000 to build an orphanage, school and church in Uganda. The school is very grateful for his support and will raffle these jerseys along with other sporting memorabilia such as signed golf caps from US Open Champion Rory McIlroy and British Open Champion Darren Clarke, a framed and autographed picture of Roy Keane, a ball signed by the Republic of Ireland squad who recently qualified for this summer’s European Championships and the list is continuing to grow……
19th December 2011
Christmas Logs
Mr Wilson and his Year 13 students were busy selling crafts at the local craft fare on Sunday 18th December to raise funds for Mukuru.
14th December 2011
Raffle Ticket Hampers
A Clarins Hamper worth £150 has been donated for Mukuru. Many thanks to all who bought a raffle ticket – it raised a total of £205.00. Congratulations to David Wilson who won.
Thanks you to all who bought tickets for 13F’s hamper we are still counting the money but we have raised over £100. The winner was Megan Kelly 13A.
12th December 2011
Christmas Carols
St Michael's choir will be singing Christmas Carols at Marks n Spencer Sprucefield on Friday 16th December from 1-6pm.
7th December 2011
Bag Pack
On Saturday 10th December, 11 Mukuru students spent a busy day bag packing in Iceland’s Lurgan branch to raise funds for MMM. As it was the festive season business was brisk and the students were kept busy with a constant stream of customers passing through the till points. The students were well rewarded for their efforts. We would like to thank Iceland Lurgan and their customers for allowing us this opportunity to fundraise for Mukuru 2012.
29th November 2011
Mukuru Team 2012
There was a great sense of excitement when the selection of students and staff to travel to Mukuru in June 2012 was announced recently. As usual there were a huge number of applications. In June 2012, twenty students will travel with four members of staff, to experience for themselves the realities of life in an African shanty town. During their time in Nairobi, students and staff will be working in support of the Sisters of Mercy who are based in the Mukuru Promotion Centre. They will have an opportunity to work with the children of St Catherine’s Primary School in Mukuru and with boys in St Michael’s secondary school, and the street boys who are based in the rehabilitation centre in Mukuru.
28th November 2011
Mukuru Hoodies 2012
The new Mukuru clothing range for 2012 is now ready and available to purchase. This year we have a group of Year 13/14 boys as the 2012 sales team. They have chosen a new range of colour options which allows the purchaser to customise their hoodie for an individual look. The boys have introduced track bottoms to match the hoodies and new range of cool T-shirts. All the gear can be bought directly from the boys in the school canteen at break time or lunch time. We wish the 2012 sales team who are participating in the school immersion visit to Mukuru in June 2012 every success.
15th November 2011
Mass Presentation & Christmas Cards
Throughout November a number of Year 13 and Year 14 students have been raising awareness and speaking of their experiences in local parishes of the good work that is taking place in Mukuru. Fundraising is a key aspect of the project and we have been very fortunate in the past to be supported so generously by the local community and the parishioners. Staff and students have taken the opportunity at the end of Mass to sell Christmas cards which have been produced by the children in Mukuru, with all proceeds going directly to the fund. The focus of our efforts is to try to make life a little better for some of the poorest children in Africa.
9th November 2011
Dublin Marathon 2011
The 31st year of the National Lottery Dublin Marathon, which runs through the historic Georgian streets of Dublin, took place on Monday 31st October. The Dublin Marathon has become known internationally as the Friendly marathon as a result of the reaction of many thousands of spectators lining the city streets for the event. Well done to Head of Religious Studies Mrs Farley who ran her very first marathon raising funds for the Mukuru project. Mrs Farley completed the Marathon in 4hours 23 minutes and was delighted to have crossed the finish line. Speaking after the marathon Mrs Farley commented that it had been a wonderful and very worthwhile experience.
13th September 2011
Are you hoping to participate in the Mukuru visit 2012?
Applications are now invited from students in Year 13 and Year 14 who are interested in travelling to Mukuru as part of the school visit in June 2012. Students must be aware of the criteria for selection. Applicants must be able to fulfil all the requirements laid out in the PowerPoint (click link below). The Mukuru Committee is expecting a strong field of applicants this year because there are no exam restrictions. Good luck to all those intending to apply. It is atremendous opportunity that comes highly recommended by all the students who have availed of it in recent years.
Mukuru PowerPoint
Sinead supports Fire Relief in Mukuru
Mercy Mission to Mukuru was delighted to welcome back past pupil Sinead Owens who was part of the school team who travelled to Mukuru in June 2010. Sinead was moved by the plight of the slum dwellers whose tin shacks were burned when a fire broke out in the Mukuru slums in March 2011. Sinead and her friends ran a very successful musical evening in Lurgan Town Hall raising £2,900 to be used to support the families who were made homeless by the fire. The money was handed over to the Sisters of Mercy in Mukuru in June 2011 where it was put to good use in the purchase of basic furniture, school supplies and equipment needed to get many families back on their feet. Sr. Sally from the Mukuru Promotion Centre applauded Sinead’s energy and great efforts in making a difference to the lives of the poorest people in Nairobi.
Tesco Collection
Fundraising for Mercy Mission to Mukuru 2012, kicked off on Saturday 10th September in the new Tesco superstore in Craigavon. A display of images of the visit of June 2011 was available to view and students chatted with local shoppers explaining how they had been involved in the project and the recent visit to Mukuru. Many shoppers donated to the collection in support of Mukuru. MMM would like to thank Tesco for hosting the display and authorising the collection. It was a pleasant and worthwhile day for the staff and students who participated in the first event of the year.
MUKURU 2011 TRIP REPORT
On Saturday 18th June 2011, 20 students and 4 staff from St Michael’s embarked on a 10 day working visit to the Nairobi slum of Mukuru. This is our sixth visit and the fifth undertaken with students. We have worked in Kenya for several years and have been directly involved in aid and development work at a variety of levels. Consequently this year we wanted to see first hand the progress that has been made and to meet with the Sisters of Mercy working there, to agree with them how best we can continue to support their work especially in the area of education.
The overnight flight to Nairobi took about 9 hours. Our first day in Kenya consisted of a visit to the giraffe sanctuary- with everyone having an up close and personal experience of giraffes. The government in Kenya recognises the importance of wildlife and tourism to their economic growth and it is committed to protecting the declining numbers of giraffes in the country.On Monday morning we travelled to the slums to work in St Catherine’s Primary school and the Mary Immaculate Residential home for street boys- here the students saw for the first time the fine purpose built home which St Michael’s school community has built. (see photos) It was an emotional moment for all as we could see right in front of us the Residential Home which we had heard so much about and up until now only seen videos and photos off.
During the week we had the opportunity to visit the slums which was a traumatic experience for all. Although we had been prepared for this part of the visit the truth is that no preparation can truly prepare you for the scale of the poverty we witnessed there. The slums of Mukuru are home to over 700,000 people. Most of these people left their rural home because of poverty and came to the city in search of work. Some were successful but the overwhelming majority, being unskilled and uneducated, remain jobless .They live in shacks made from cardboard or plastic material whilst the better off have houses of corrugated iron sheets .There is no waste collection and most of the waste both sanitary and household goes directly into the nearby river. This results in a smell which is almost overpowering. To say we were shocked is an understatement.
We spent the week teaching the children in the school and sharing our experiences of life in Lurgan. It was particularly emotional listening to the experiences of the streetboys many of whom, having no families, find themselves with no one and no place to go and so become victims of solvent abuse. One of the many highlights took place on Thursday when we presented a cheque for £15,000 to Sisters Mary and Sally representing the Mercy Order in Kenya, we also presented a cheque for £2,900 raised during a fund raising concert, organised by one of our past pupils Sinead Owens, to help the victims of the fire which spread through the slums in April. A third cheque for over £5,000 was also presented to sponsor street boys currently on our programme to continue with a secondary education (see photos). During our time there we also had the opportunity to see first hand the extraordinary work being carried out by other people and organisations such as Kazuri beads- which provides work for battered women- and also the Nyumbani organisation which has helped nearly 1000 orphans either affected or infected by HIV. The visit to the orphanage run by Sister Mary Owens, a Loreto sister from Ireland, was particularly moving and inspiring.(see photo)
We finished our stay with a safari to the Mara river- which we hoped would give our students the opportunity to see another side to life which Kenya has to offer. Although this was a brilliant opportunity to see the spectacular wild life in Kenya, the students remarked how they would have been quite happy to spend more time with the children in the slums- and perhaps this is a testimony to the success of the trip. It is true that we all went to Africa enthusiastically thinking of ways in which we could help, but, in the end, we have returned home feeling that we were the ones whose lives were enriched by the truly remarkable experience and although our physical journey has ended our Mercy Mission to Mukuru journey continues with renewed enthusiasm and commitment.
Click here for 2011 Gallery.