Irish aid work vital to create a better world

TD NEALE Richmond recently travelled to two of the poorest countries in the world, to see the work of Irish Aid in the regions.

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The Minister of State for International Development visited Sierra Leone and Liberia, two countries affected by US aid cuts.

He vowed that Ireland will not be cutting support for those most in need.

Here, he writes for the Irish Daily Star about what he witnessed, and how Ireland is making a real difference through Irish Aid projects, our government programme to tackle world poverty and provide humanitarian assistance.

MARKPLAH Christopher remembers when it was different.

When her eldest child, now 13, was a baby, sickness used to spread like wildfire through the children in her village.

There was no clean water. No proper toilets. The food they produced was rarely enough to keep hunger at bay. Young bodies were too weak to fight the illnesses that ripped through the village.

Today, her two youngest children, aged 4 and 5, have very different childhoods.

A water pump sits proudly at the entrance to the village. Healthy crops wait to be harvested. Modern toilets allow for safe sanitation. A new loan scheme has allowed Markplah and community members to invest small amounts of money in education and businesses.