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How Clare's good counsel changed lives in Kenya
WITH 40 per cent of its 80,000 inhabitants having AIDS or HIV, the impoverished community of Baba Dogo in Kenya would appear a very disparate place from the Suffolk town of Clare.
History will undeniably record, however, the pivotal role played by the Catholic congregation of Clare Priory in providing the Nairobi suburb with a new HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis clinic.
Baba Dogo's Town of the Sacred Heart and Church of the Mother of Good Counsel at Clare Priory – both run by priests from the Order of St Augustine – have been twinned since 2000.
The partnership stemmed from a suggestion by Gill Paterson, then a Clare Townioner but now living in London, after she met one of the Sacred Heart's priests.
It led to the founding of Clare's 'One World Group', which began raising money for the education of AIDS orphans and street children in Baba Dogo and provided friendship and spiritual support, something it continues to do today.
After hearing of the efforts of Clare's Townioners, who last year contributed £11,000 towards the work in Baba Dogo, the Augustinian Order's governing body, the General Council, adopted the clinic as a global fund raising campaign.
Father Ben O'Rourke, Town priest of Clare, said: "We were looking for somewhere to do something and we thought that's where we need to do it.
"We were honoured when the central government of the Order decided it would do something and they went in in a big way with some money.
"They credited Clare with having put something in their minds."
The three-storey clinic will provide free treatment, testing and counselling services to those suffering from HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis, whatever their religious denomination.
There are also consultation and treatment rooms, space for training and an education programme, while one floor will provide facilities for pregnant women.
The clinic is built to form part of a compound that includes the Sacred Heart church and an 800-pupil school.
With a stigma and shame existing in Kenyan society for anyone with HIV/AIDS, the compound's shared entrances mean anyone using it can enter and leave it with discretion.
Father Bernard Rolls, Clare's prior, added: "They saw in Rome what we were doing for the Townioners in Baba Dogo so we kind of sparked it off.
"Baba Dogo is mentioned here in our prayers every Sunday morning and the people do really make a big fund raising effort."
The clinic has taken two years to build at a cost of 153,000 Euros, about £106,000.
Father O'Rourke added: "It is quite a small Town so when we originally started we were taking on more than we could chew.
"The generosity has far outstripped our expectations."Story By: Steve Barton Web Link: www.haverhilltoday.co.uk Email Link: steve.barton@haverhillecho.com
Date : 05-05-2006
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