Home About Friends in Ireland Programme Centres How you can help News Donors, Funders and Partners Contact Donate                             Welcome Friends in Ireland was founded by Marian Finucane and John Clarke in June 2002.  It was born out of a visit to South Africa in mid 2002 where we saw, at first hand, the dire circumstances of orphaned and vulnerable children who have been infected or affected by HIV AIDS. Friends in Ireland with the assistance of the local communities run 4 early childhood development centres for marginalised children in rural South Africa. These are attended by 165 children who receive early education and nutrition daily. There are 7 drop in centres where over 500 children and youths receive nutrition daily, and we aim to provide after schools programmes and to care for the youths’ psycho-social needs as well as their physical needs. All of our work takes places in consultation with the local communities. Most of the day-to-day running of our centres is handled by the 7 community based organisations with which we work. For our work to be successful in the long term one of our main aims is to build the capacity of these community based organisations to enable them to work for their own communities. All of our work is centred on children as they are the future. We work in the rural Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces with the most marginalised children from the communities where poverty and HIV infection rates are high.                      Marian Finucane and John Clarke meeting Nelson Mandela                      Latest News        10 May 2012 Euro Competition Want to see Ireland play Spain in Poland and support Friends in Ireland , the official charity of the FAI?          Read more          Terms and Conditions        14 March 2012 Private Screening of Nuala: A Life and Death          read more        16 April 2012 Job Vacancy: Field Officer          read more                      Why Help?        South Africa expects to have more than 2 million HIV AIDS Orphans by 2012. Right now, as you read this, Friends in Ireland are working to alleviate the suffering heaped upon the people, particularly the children, of South Africa. The rationale of this intervention is simple. The scale of the misery of this pandemic is so awesome, one could be overwhelmed in to doing nothing, but one life saved or one life improved makes it worthwhile trying to help. Our aim is to create lasting and meaningful structures through which the people of South Africa can rise to meet the challenges they now face with pride and dignity. More startling statistics on the problem.        Our Audited Accounts        2010 accounts (PDF) 2011 accounts (PDF)                            Registered Charity No. 14933   |   Phone: +353 (0)1 4583007   |   Fax: +353 (0)1 4583007   |   Email: office@friendsinireland.ie   |   powered by: go2web