REIGNING Rose of Tralee and Mungret native Sinead Flanagan is taking on her duties with all the compassion she brings to her full-time job as a hospital doctor.
Last month Sinead followed in the footsteps of her predecessors, and took her first overseas trip to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to visit HOPE’s projects with street and slum children.
There she witnessed the shocking conditions endured by Kolkata’s most vulnerable children, those who live in the slums, dumps and streets of India’s second-most populous city.
Speaking about the most difficult experience of her trip to Kolkata, Sinead says that accompanying the night ambulance was upsetting and it struck her that the only difference between these people and Irish people is where we were born and she appealed to people to remember the forgotten street children of Kolkata this Christmas.
“During my week in Kolkata, I have seen how HOPE are giving vulnerable children an opportunity, through education and protection, to lift themselves out of the poverty that they were born into. It is a great privilege to get to witness this incredible work first-hand and to meet the other volunteers from Specsavers and The Law Society of Ireland”.
HOPE Honorary Director, Maureen Forrest, thanked the Rose of Tralee Festival committee for their ongoing support and said she was delighted and grateful to have such wonderful people in Kolkata supporting the foundation’s work.
I am humbled by the support we have received from the Irish public in the past 20 years. These are the forgotten children, born into a world of dire poverty. As people like Sinead give just a little of their time, skills, knowledge, wisdom, compassion, wealth and love, the world becomes a better place.”
Over the coming weeks, Limerick people will be encouraged to buy a Gift of HOPE, download or purchase their new album called ‘Friends of HOPE’ or donate to help continue the work in Kolkata for Christmas, at www.giftsofhope.ie
For as little as a €5 donation a week a child’s education can be sponsored.
