Update from the ERD Board

Reflection from Dee McMahon, ERD Board Director, on her recent trip to Kenya:

It was not a hard decision to take a weeks holidays from work when I was asked to consider travelling with the ERD team to Kenya to visit the projects and provide some finance and governance assistance. In fact, it was a complete honour.

It had been six and a half years since I had been in Africa; my last trip as a finance consultant was in Sierra Leone and it had been over ten years since I had been in Kenya, so I was very excited to be making my way back to East Africa and to see the work of ERD in person.

What I did not expect was to see a huge difference in the young people I encountered; I came away with such hope for the future of Kenya. The young adults we came across on our visit to the Edmund Rice Catholic Education Centre (ERCEC) were such strong, positive and empowered people – it was amazing! They were very hopeful of their future and in particular I was blown away by the strength of the young women and their belief in an education for them. They were very clear on their direction and the need to be educated. As someone who has long held the belief that it is only education that will bring Africa out of poverty, the same way that Ireland was brought out of poverty, this was hugely encouraging for me and I came home with such a positive feeling for the future.

Our other visits to the Ruben Centre and Edmund Rice Centre Nairobi were very uplifting and positive as well. In the Ruben Centre, I counted 14 individual projects occurring in this one compound, from the school, to the health centre, the radio station, training centres and many more as well as the wonderful maternity clinic which is funded by ERD and Misean Cara.

Compassion and love were ever present during my trip and I am so grateful to all at ERD for the wonderful opportunity afforded to me this February. I will leave you with a fantastic quote from Nelson Mandela which was written on the wall outside of one of the training centres in ERCEC, ‘Who am I (not) to be brilliant, talented and fabulous?’

Thank you to all
Dee