Christian Aid Ireland has thanked the people of West Cork for their support for the fundraising efforts of a Carrigaline clergyman who recently completed a sponsored walk around County Cork, raising more than €11,000 for the agency’s work in Burundi, a country affected by poverty, hunger and conflict.
Rev Tony Murphy’s month-long pilgrimage began in Bantry on 1st May and concluded in Youghal on 27th May. He visited each of the 22 parishes in the Church of Ireland diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross and walked for at least 5 kms at each location while collecting sponsorship for Christian Aid’s projects in the East African country.
Rev Tony was joined by local rectors and parishioners and supported on many of the walks by Andrew Coleman, Christian Aid Ireland’s Bandon-based Church and Community Officer. On the final day of his walk, he was joined by the Mayor of Cork, Councillor Mary Linehan Foley who came along to congratulate him for his fundraising efforts.
The small Church of Ireland community of County Cork, comprising just 10,000 people, is the sole funder of three Christian Aid farming cooperatives in Burundi on which hundreds of poor families depend to boost their incomes, enabling them to pay school fees and medical bills.
Rev Tony, who was born in Tipperary, visited Burundi in 2019 to see for himself how the support of Cork diocese is enabling farmers in Burundi to move from subsistence farming, where they grow food to survive, to a business model where they grow food for sale, in order to thrive.
Rev Tony’s pilgrimage brings to more than €70,000 the sum raised within the diocese since 2017 to fund the project.
Rev Tony Murphy recalled his visit to Burundi: “The support of Cork diocese was hugely appreciated by the people in Burundi, a people with spirit and resilience who are working hard to move from subsistence living. The cooperatives are doing so well that the hope is that they will have become self-sustaining by the end of next year and won’t require further support.”
If you would like to sponsor Tony's walk, you can make an online donation here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/walking4burundi or you can post a cheque to Rev Tony Murphy, 9 Riverside, Carrigaline, County Cork, P43 FP11 marked ‘Burundi’ on the reverse.
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