The people of Clarinbridge are set to once again rally round a local couple’s campaign that is transforming the lives of children in a poverty-stricken community on the far side of the world.

The annual tea party at the home of Mary and Malachy Booth in Stradbally North has become a fundraiser for a village in the East African country of Malawi – in the past four years it has raised more than €42,000 for the people of Matandani.

This year the event will be hosted by the Booths on Thursday, May 29 – and their neighbours will be pulling out all the stops again to bake treats for the day and help run the day-long party.

In tandem with the Tea Party fundraiser, Mary Booth is also issuing an appeal for donations for a large container to be shipped out to Malawi, courtesy of DHL, next month – which will include medical and educational supplies.

Donations of schoolbags, pencil cases, colouring books, colouring pencils and markers will be most welcome – and this year she is also looking for sports-related items like footballs (not inflated!) and sports kits.

While the main focus has been on helping children in the Matandani primary school, also waiting to be shipped off are about a thousand pairs of glasses, donated by Elaine O’Sullivan of Optique Opticians in Briarhill, which had been left behind by customers who bought new ones over the past year.

“We sent out about 400 of them last year for the adults in the community and it has made a huge difference to them – for many, it has helped them to start learning to read and write. They just go through the stock of glasses until they find a pair that’s right for them,” Mary explained.

Mary and Malachy Booth spent three weeks in Matandani five years ago, when they saw at first hand how difficult conditions were for the 1,300 pupils are the local overcrowded school.

Mary plans to return to the village in the south of Malawi next month and volunteer there for three weeks, accompanied by Marie Cloonan, Clinical Nurse Manager in the cardio-thoracic unit at UHG, who will work in the school and also travel out to clinics in the wider community, where conditions are very much Third World. Her colleagues in the hospital are donating much needed medical supplies.

Also travelling is Laois teacher Andy Monaghan and his father – it was through her former profession as a teacher that Mary Booth came across Andy and his work with Project Malawi, the charity he set up to help the school in the rural village over a decade ago.

And they won’t be arriving empty-handed. Along with the money to be raised by the Tea Party – which came to more than €12,000 last year – they will have 800kg of supplies, transported to the area by DHL, thanks to the Booths’ Clarinbridge neighbour Frank O’Donovan, who is a pilot with the global logistics company.

Mary is grateful to all the people of Clarinbridge who pitch in to help with the Tea Party fundraiser – in ten years, it has raised more than €72,000 for a mix of good causes, with the Mantandani school the sole beneficiary for the past four years.

“Four years ago, we set out to raise €4,000 to pay for a new classroom for the school … we actually raised €16,000, which helped to build four classrooms, which in turn brought down the pupil-teacher ratio from 140 to 90. We got desks made locally too – the children used to have to sit on the floor.”

Money from Ireland has also paid for a water supply, which led to proper toilets being installed in the school and provided running water for the rest of the village too.

When Project Malawi first started, school life was a struggle for teachers and pupils in huge classes with extremely limited teaching resources and a lack of basic infrastructure such as water and electricity.

Over the years, it has helped to build new classrooms, provided training for teachers, brought modern IT equipment and other teaching resources, medical supplies as well as some sports facilities.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 20 million. Life expectancy is around 60 years of age with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, respiratory infections being the main causes of death. It is also seriously affected by climate change.

■ Donations towards the Tea Party next Thursday, May 29, can be made at idonate.ie, search for Malachy and Mary’s Tea Party.

Pictured at the launch of the Project Malawi Tea Party at the home of Mary and Malachy booth in Stradbally, Clarinbridge, were (standing, from left) Malachy Booth, Mary Booth, Marie Cloonan and Jackie Joyce and (seated) Cathaoirleach of Galway County Council, Cllr Martina Kinnane, and Margaret Bindon. The annual fundraiser will be held this year on Thursday next, May 29.