Shirley sends Third World £300,000 aid

THE "LOST" tribes ot the Kalahari desert in Western Africa, whose nomadic culture has been chronicled by the anthropoligist and explorer Laurens van der Post, are among this year's recipients of aid from a Catholic parish in the Midlands.
The parish of Our Lady of the Wayside, Shirley, Solihull, has sent £6,000 to a project to reeducate the bushmen, whose ancient way of life has been disasterously undermined by the war in Angola, before they disappear completely.
The grant is part of the annual aid programme of the parish, which since June last year has distributed a record £300,000 to more than 14 Third World countries and local projects.
Fr Patrick O'Mahony, Shirley's parish priest and an internationally known fundraiser, said this week that the parish had decided to help the bushmen after news of their predicament became known early last year. "We are the only major aid organisation Supporting the bushmen,' he said.
Fr O'Mahony said that the conflict in Namibia and Angola had seriously constricted the traditional hunting grounds of the diminutive bushmen.
"The white South African army recruited many of the bushmen to use their tracking skills to hunt down their cousins in the Ovanbo tribe, many of whom are members of Swapo fighting in Namibia. Most of the bushmen, with their hunting grounds gone, used their pay to buy alchohol. It is a tragic situation."
The grant has gone towards a scheme to re-educate the bushmen in their own culture and traditions and to show them "a second way of life".
Most of the parish's aid was distributed to the Third World, particularly Africa, but several local projects received grants.
More than £6,000 of medical supplies, part of a donation made by the multinational chemical group Beechams Research International, were this week flown out to Kitovu Hospital in Uganda. Other countries that have benefited include Poland, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Peru.