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Almost a year ago, Fr Ciaran Feeney and Kate Acton from St Colmcille’s Parish in Ballyhackamore thought about the possibility of bringing a group to World Youth Day in Brazil in July 2013 and also doing some humanitarian work in the developing world. That dream soon became a reality after a conversation with Chris O’Donoghue from SERVE. 

Serve discussed the possibility of getting involved with a great project in the North Eastern region of Brazil that had been developed in partnership with the Redemptorists and Caritas over the last 10 years. The project aims to make a huge difference in helping those who live in extremely sub-standard living conditions to live in decent homes and thus improve their health, wellbeing and opportunities in life. Serve also aims to build the capacity on the ground through youth leadership programmes and development education work. Diarmaid Ua Bruadair from SERVE will co-lead the team and he has a wealth of experience, expertise and credibility in the local community. Kate signed up for the Serve Project and committed to bringing a group of young people to Parnaiba, North East Brazil to make a difference.

Inspired by the project and the possibility of bringing a group the recruitment process began. Fr Gerry Campbell, from Armagh Diocese, heard about the project and decided this was too good an opportunity to turn down. Together they decided to bring a group of twenty young people to Brazil to build houses for those in need and to go on pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Rio with Pope Francis and millions of young Catholic’s across the world. The young people are made up from the parishes of St Colmcille’s Parish Ballyhackamore, St Colmcille’s Holywood and a number of parishes from North Louth recruited by Fr Gerry. They will be representing their families, schools, parish, diocese and country as they embark on this great endeavour.

The group developed friendships on a team building weekend and heard about the importance of development education and heard about the exciting project they were involved in. They enthusiastically started fundraising with many creative ideas from bag packs, sponsored stay awakes, Barbeques and coffee mornings. Thanks to the many donations from our kind and generous family, friends and community, we have met all the targets that will ensure the project is a success and we will ensure that the people of Parnaiba will know of the generosity and solidarity shown by the kind people in Ireland.

After many months of fundraising, planning meetings and teambuilding and a few hiccups along the way.  We have finally made it to the summer of 2013 and are we are ready for the Serve Brazil project in Parnaiba.  We leave for Brazil on the 9^th of July and we will spend the first couple of weeks building houses in Parnaiba and then we will travel to Rio for the World Youth Day pilgrimage were we will keep you all in our thoughts and prayers. We ask you to pray for us and the local community we will be working alongside and also pray for a safe journey. We look forward to showing you the many photographs and telling you about the amazing project and the difference you have helped to make in the world. Once again, thanks for your kind and generous donations. God Bless.

Please follow our Blog at http://servebrazil2013.blogspot.co.uk/ or check out www.serve.ie for more information.