Liam McGinley’s Habitat for Humanity

A Buncrana man is to join 23 students from NUI Galway on a charity expedition to Bangladesh later this month. Liam McGinley, from Millbrae, who is studying for a physiology degree at the university, will travel to Mymensingh, north of the capital of Dhaka on a Global Village Trip with the charity organisation Habitat for Humanity. In recent months, the former Scoil Iosagain and Scoil Mhuire student has been joining the rest of the volunteers to vigourously fundraise for the trip in any way they could – all while studying for their exams. In fact, they spent most of their Christmas holidays bag packing in supermarkets in Galway and Dublin, only arriving home late on Christmas Eve. Liam also took part in a charity triathlon. The aim of their trip is to work with other volunteers and the local people with a view to building decent, affordable homes for the people in the area. Bangladesh is the seventh most populus country in the world. It remains poor, overpopulated and inefficiently governed and nearly two-thirds of its people are rice growers. The risk of typhoid fever, malaria and rabies is high and about a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the rainy season, hampering any economic development. Habitat for Humanity is an internationally acclaimed non-denominational Christian self-build housing organisation who work in over 100 countries and to date have built over 200,000 simple, decent and affordable homes for over one million people in 3,000 communities. It offers a ‘hand up’, not a ‘hand out.’ In order to ensure Liam and his fellow students’ trip is a success, they need to try seventy five thousand euro and are now all going home to try and raise the money on ‘their own home turf.’ He would greatly appreciate the support of everyone in Inishowen and the money raised will be recycled again and again to help other poor people throughout the world. As part of the fundraising effort in Buncrana, Liam is planning a two-day charity shop on Main Street on May 13 and 14 and also a fundraising raffle for a large hamper will take place over the next few weeks, with tickets priced at five euro. For more information about the trip, to make a donation or purchase a ticket for the raffle, please contact Liam on 0872173490 or Gloria/Gerrard n 0749362297