Kilrush / Askamore Parish
Fr Frank Murphy's Recife Children's Project.

e mail: murphy@hotlink.com.br

When, in 1973 I began working as the parish and only priest in Remedios, Recife under the inspiring leadership of bishop Dom Helder Camara, the first shock was to discover that so many of the shanty town children died in the first years of their life. Money was scraped together and a mini school "of clay and wattles made" was built in a foetid swamp beside a dead branch of the river Capibaribe, to provide food, (in the beginning a bucket of soup, made in the parish house, with a few loves to add substance to the broth), for three to six year olds. Gradually the number of these mini-schools increased to six catering for between six and nine hundred parish slum children. In course of time, cement floors were laid and the clay and wattles gave place to bricks and mortar with a fridge and cooker added as finances improved. The local government was then persuaded to provide two or three teachers for each of the schools and even on occasion beans and rice were donated by the school authorities but it was mostly from parish funds with help from friends in Ireland that daily meals were furnished to the mini-schools.

But under three year olds continued to die and the solution was to found the Crèche to cater for fifty children from three months old to six years. Funds for this work were obtained from Trocaire, Ireland and Misereor of Germany, the parish, with some help from me using my salary as professor of Eng. Lit at a Jesuit university, having bought several plots of land prior to this. The Crèche began to function in October 1978,with Dr Joaquim Alcantara as first president.

When Cultura inglesa ( a language school to teach English to those able to pay the rather hefty fees!) was founded I was invited to teach there. A national TV channel offered the Cultura a spot of five minutes to present their wares and I agreed to appear on the condition that I be allowed to speak about the Crèche for one minute. The result was that a German listener contacted me offering help from Diaconia to cover the payment of the staff at the Creche. Ultimately this role was taken over by another German charity, Kindernothilfe, (KNH), which after some years agreed to include three hundred children from the mini-schools. After a few years of plenty, Kindernothilfe announced that they would not continue to finance the mini-schools but would continue helping 150 at the Crèche, which by this time had more than two hundred. In addition, KNH became convinced that children from 12 to 18 run more danger on the streets than under threes so gradually we were nudged to increase the age till we finally arrived at the limit of eighteen.

Over the years KNH helped us to extend the building and also cover the playground. Funds from Maidenhead, Manchester and Ireland (including ten thousand pounds from the Dept of Foreign Affairs) helped us build on several new adjoining plots bought with funds raised by me and the parish and thus was erected the new block named St Edmund Campion in thanks for the great help given by this parish in Maidenhead. This new building houses the computer courses (all Crèche children over five have two or three computer contacts of half an hour every week), music, English language teaching, mechanical drawing, arts and crafts and the grandly named culinary courses (whose specialty is teaching the use of food sources often thrown away as unusable.......skins, stalks ). Mention should also be made of poet Paul Durcan who, on a poetry reading tour to Brazil, persuaded the British Embassy in Brasilia to finance the boring of a 500 foot well which keeps us abundantly supplied with good, drinkable water. Actor, Donal Mc Cann, who died a few years ago, left the Crèche five thousand pounds in his will.

Some five or six years ago the local authorities agreed to fund eighty children at the Crèche mostly by sending us some food every week and enough money to pay half the salaries of the staff engaged in caring for these eighty children.

Amencar ( the Brazilian charity representing KNH in Brazil) have now informed us that after Dec 2005 they will not be financing us nor any Crèche. This deprives us of over ten thousand reais per month (divide by 5 to get sterling and by a little over three to get euros). To us this is little short of a disaster.... and makes us ever more dependent on monthly contributions from sponsors, especially in England and Ireland.

Future editions of this brief history will narrate how we managed to survive (presuming and hoping we do) and in what reduced circumstances. Misneach in ár gcroí, neart in ár láimh agus beart do reir ár mbriathar!

Bank Details for anyone wanting to donate to this crèche.
Recife Children's Project
Ailled Irish Banks,
Slaney Street,
Enniscorthy,
Co Wexford.
Sorting Code 933415   account number: 60205221

Recife Children's Project
Royal Bank of Scotland,
40 High St,
Maidenhead,
Sorting Code 16-2448   account number 10011188

Fr Frank Murphy,CSSp,
Ed.Irlanda,
R. Florentino O. Santos,
310 Afogados,
Recife,
PE.,
50830/470,
Brazil.
Tel:(005581)34283893      e mail: murphy@hotlink.com.br

Montly Bulletin