Madam, – Elaine Bannon, a Dublin woman who has been working in Kenya with very poor people for the past six years, is being awarded the highest honour the President of Kenya can give for humanitarian endeavour. She is the first non-Kenyan ever to be given this honour, called the Order of Warriors.
In the past five years she has worked tirelessly in a semi-desert area, Rombo, in providing deep wells (giving clean water and irrigation for crops). She has been involved in building schools, and extensions to existing schools, and has provided sponsorship for 300 students at all levels of education. Ms Bannon has been instrumental in making three well-equipped clinics available where people are treated for as little as 50 cent a visit. In times of famine, she organises food programmes, and has a special nutrition outreach to help mothers, babies and those with Aids.
A group of people from the Rotary Club in central Dublin are climbing Mount Everest next month in aid of her work .