BY Ian Dunn | July 6 | 
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Holy Family priest leads parish group to Kenya to help at AIDS clinic
This weekend, 12 young people from Holy Family parish in Port Glasgow will begin a journey of a lifetime. Led by parish priest Fr Brian McGee, they will spend a month helping at an AIDS clinic in Kenya, but how they got to this point is almost as impressive as what they are about to do.
“They have raised £46,000.” Fr McGee said. “When I began this, I thought if we raise £12,000, that will pay for our travel and raise some money for the clinic, but £46,000 is just incredible by the young people and all the parish.”
Last Saturday, the young people attended a Mass of commission before the whole parish took part in a fundraising ceilidh, but the roots of the trip are far earlier.
“The clinic we are going to is in a town called Keracho, in Western Kenya, and it is run by Sr Placida McCann, from the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception, who is from Greenock,” Fr McGee said. “I had been out there four times and I thought it would be a really good thing for the parish if we could get some young people out there.”
Last year he held a meeting for all the 18-30 year olds in the parish and his idea was warmly received.
“About 30 people showed interest initially,” he recalled. “But obviously there was a natural falling away because people had to move for work and so on. But we have had the core group of 12 for about nine months now.”
The efforts that group has made to raise the money have been pretty extraordinary.
“They have done almost everything you can think of,” he said. “We had a Come Dine With Me night in the Church hall, we have had dances, and a race night and coffee mornings. The whole parish has been really generous and I think it has brought folk together, not just the ones that are going.”
Though they have met the fundraising challenge superbly, a whole different challenge will await them in Kenya.
“We will just be doing what ever the clinic wants us to do,” Fr McGee explained. “Helping with support groups and cleaning up, visiting local schools, just anything they want us to do we will.”
He believes the experience will a hugely beneficial one for the group.
“I think it will help their Faith grow,” he said.
“I suspect they will be shocked to see how the world lives but hopefully it will make them ambassadors for the world’s poor in the future.”
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