Aidlink is a long-term, valued, and effective special partner for ElectricAid. Anne Cleary, CEO of Aidlink can still remember the first grant from ElectricAid: “It was in 1997 – about €2,500 to fix the roof on a maternity wing in a rural health care facility. It was the first grant we received after I joined Aidlink.”
It might have been the first but it certainly was not the last. Since 2004, ElectricAid has contributed €0.56 million to its “special partner” Aidlink, supporting 51 different targeted, grass-roots projects to improve the lives of people living in poverty in Africa. As a result of this support, tens of thousands of men, women and children have benefitted from:
- Access to safer, cleaner water following the protection of springs and the construction of shallow wells;
- An improved school environment thanks to the construction of classrooms and hygiene and sanitation facilities across Kenya and Uganda;
- More food to eat and sell as a result of training on sustainable and drought resistant agriculture;
- Access to essential medical services in properly equipped healthcare facilities in Northern Kenya
- A 2nd chance for early school leavers – an opportunity to return to school and gain the primary leaving certificate
- A daily meal in school during the 2017 East African drought.
Aidlink is a small Irish organisation based in Dublin and works with some of the poorest, most isolated and marginalised communities in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana. They aim to implement projects which combine their own development expertise with local skills and knowledge – to ensure that communities have the tools and training they need to take charge of their own development long-term. Whether it be the classrooms built at Mugalike Parents Primary School in Uganda (2005), the construction of teachers’ accommodation in Kiyinda Mityana, Uganda (2008), or on-going support for an adult education in Turkana, Northern Kenya, projects supported by ElectricAid continue to have a positive impact, helping Aidlink to enable people, especially women and girls in some of the poorest communities in Africa, to achieve healthy and fulfilling lives.
For more information on Aidlink’s work, visit www.aidlink.ie.
Main Photo: School management committee, Endonyo Wuas PS, Kajiado, Kenya. Others: Victoria, a student of Endonyo Wuas PS. / Striking water – a new borehole at Bincheratanga. / Productive fields after ElectricAid funded agriculture training. / Rights of the Child Club, Olmanie PS, Kajiado.
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