Thousands of Kildare people helped this farmer last year
Silas Njagi (35) benefited from the Sky Limit Irrigation Scheme in Ishiara parish which was funded by money from Trocaire boxes in schools, homes and offices.
Rathangan sheep farmer, Oliver Cribbon, is featured on almost a million Trócaire boxes this Lent.
This year’s Lenten Campaign is recognising people across Ireland who, like Oliver, have made an extraordinary contribution to tackling injustice and poverty across the world by supporting Trócaire.
Oliver said: “People are asking me how I am on the Trócaire Box. They don’t believe that it’s me on the box, so I’m joking with them by telling them it’s my twin!”
Oliver has a young granddaughter, who like her grandad, loves farming and sheep.
He’s happy that the Trócaire box will be another way for her to follow in his footsteps.
Last year people across Kildare reached thousands of poor farming families in places like rural Kenya with vital irrigation schemes to water their dry farmland.
One irrigation scheme is the Sky Limit Irrigation Scheme in Ishiara Parish, Kenya, which has been funded by people from Ireland to provide water for growing crops on drought-prone land. On getting connected to water, farmers gave the scheme this name, as they said that ‘with water, the sky’s the limit’.
Fr Peter Emoit, who runs the project, explains, “June to October is the hardest time for farmers as there is no rain and people are hungry. People have to move to the highlands or other parts of the country to work.
“With support from Trócaire, the parish has reached 15,000 people with water, livestock husbandry, sheep dipping, land conservation, agriculture and microfinance.
June to October are the hardest months, when people who rely on rain for farming go hungry. During this time, the parish gives out food aid, but this need has been greatly reduced by the irrigation scheme.
“We are grateful to Trócaire for their support. Lack of food was a challenge, but now with funds from Ireland, we have been able to help our people grow food and they don’t need to come to the parish looking for food.”
Trócaire boxes are available from parishes throughout Kildare, through trocaire.org or by phoning 1850 408 408. As well as donating through the Trócaire box and trocaire.org, people can download a free Trócaire box app for their mobile phones or tablets. The app is available from the Apple App Store or Google Playstore.