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Eamon Gilmore speaks to a Kenyan businessman during a business breakfast in Nairobi this morning. Tony Karumba/Department of Foreign Affairs via Photocall Ireland

Government to fund hospital's HIV outreach programme in Kenya

On his tour of Africa, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announces €50,000 in funding for a hospital which also offers paediatric heart surgery.

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT has announced €50,000 in funding for a hospital in Kenya operating a outreach programme for HIV patients in the slums of Nairobi.

The funding is to be given to the Mater Hospital in Nairobi, founded by the Irish Sisters of Mercy, which this year is marking its 50th anniversary.

The hospital also operates a paediatric heart surgery programme which will also benefit from Ireland’s funding.

News of the funding was announced by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, who is completing a tour of east Africa this week.

“The Mater Hospital, which was opened by the Sisters of Mercy of Ireland 50 years ago, provides free quality healthcare to the poorest people in Kenya,” Gilmore said.

“This includes heart surgery for children who otherwise would have little hope of living a full life and HIV services to people living in nearby slums.”

The €50,000 will be split evenly between the heart surgery and HIV programmes at the hospital. The HIV programme treats over 3,000 patients in Nairobi each week.

During his visit the Tánaiste met with Sr. Dr. Marian Dolan, an Irish nun who works as a doctor with disadvantaged children in the hospital.

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32 Comments
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    Mute winston smith
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    Oct 12th 2017, 6:51 AM

    This report seems to indicate that victims of trafficking have an automatic entitlement to asylum ?…would these women, mainly, not want to return to their home countries?

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    Mute Jeffrey McMahon
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    Oct 12th 2017, 7:37 AM

    @winston smith: to be fair, they could be from cultures where their families would disown them for the shame of being trafficked. At the same time, would you want to return to a country where you had been captured and sold from once already knowing that it isn’t safe and could easily happen again?

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    Mute cortisola
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    Oct 12th 2017, 10:03 AM

    @Jeffrey McMahon: So what about hundreds of millions of other women in these cultures where they can be captured and sold ?? Shouldn’t we offer all of them free asylum here? Or you like to help only the ones who got already delivered ???

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Oct 12th 2017, 11:17 AM

    a@winston smith: It is big business in some countries, to take a fellow citizen and exploit them to a deprave level and we are supposed to open our doors to everyone who practices any and all crimes against vulnerable non Irish people. If they don’t know what traps they are how do they know who to turn to when they get targeted. The ICI have never said a good word about Ireland or its services, just a stream of what we are not doing or what we are doing wrong. Never a mention about what Irish people have to go without in their own country as regard to services. This crowd are actively recruiting more migrants to bring here which is not why they are well funded by our government.

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    Mute ian kennedy
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    Oct 12th 2017, 6:55 AM

    IF YOU have been processed ,and refused asylum , go home .

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    Dj
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    Mute Dj
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    Oct 12th 2017, 7:23 AM

    It’s pretty sad really. There are real victims of trafficking in Ireland who probably just want to go home but instead get mixed up in the legal bureaucracy that’s involved in direct provision. If the ICI stopped supporting economic migrants with false stories of persecution then maybe they could spend more time getting these victims home instead of lumping them in with a bunch of chancers.

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Oct 12th 2017, 7:11 AM

    Yes,I thought Ireland had at best an indifferent approach to Asylum seekers ,this report is an indictment of a policy of wilful neglect .
    o policy to dehumanise ,a refusal by the State to harbour those victims of violence in a safe place ,strip them of dignity so they voluntarily leave,Not surprising ,seeing what we have as a Society, perpetrated on our own people ,and our continuing policy of inaction in not building affordable Social Housing but handing it over to a bunch of vulture developers,
    Ireland should do its duty to these people,

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    Mute ian kennedy
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    Oct 12th 2017, 7:29 AM

    @Brian O Reilly: ,as has already be en pointed out why dont they want to return to there own families ,its another way to try and stay in this country. have u been to dublin recently?

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Oct 12th 2017, 7:58 AM

    @ian kennedy: are you saying they are deliberately getting themselves taken or that they are lying? It’s hard to tell.

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    Mute ian kennedy
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    Oct 12th 2017, 8:53 AM

    @Dave O Keeffe: lying

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    Mute John R
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    Oct 12th 2017, 9:09 AM

    @Brian O Reilly: Brian while there are undoubtedly cases of trafficking it is also possible for people to claim they were trafficked as a way of seeking an advantage in the asylum process. I note that the spokesperson says that these cases are the “tip of the iceberg”. Is this so or is this simply wild hyperbole? Where is the proof?

    Direct provision is not the culprit here. DP has nothing to do with the legal asylum process. It is a way of providing accommodation and related supports such as medical cards for asylum seekers who have no accommodation or means. The alternative is homelessness. Finally, processing most asylum claims takes time.

    If additional supports are to be provided to alleged trafficking victims then the HSE should provide them. Not the Dept of Justice.

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    Mute Anthony Halpin
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    Oct 12th 2017, 6:58 PM

    The vast majority of problems arose between the late 1990′s and circa 2005 when massive numbers of trafficked people were arriving here. People in the dept. were making a fortune out of them, as were the legal profession. No one wanted to know. No one gave a damn, in fact.

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    Mute Trevor Beacom
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    Oct 12th 2017, 11:08 PM

    The IOC lol

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