FOL is delighted to announce the formation of focus groups in the areas of health, water, education, finance and marketing. This follows as a result of the organisational development process that FOL has undergone through funding from Irish Aid.

The Health Focus Group will assist FOL in facilitating the partnership link between Mayo General Hospital and Londiani District Hospital. It will work on the monitoring, evaluation and expansion of the Emergency Obstetric Care programme. It will expand the healthy village model and look into models of excellence in community outreach programmes. This team will also be responsible for the Lifeskills Peer Education programme.

The Water Focus Group will assist with the research, development and implantation of water programmes in Kenya. This will include the rainwater collection tanks, gravity systems and boreholes. They will also continue to develop the water care and maintenance courses for communities.

The Education Focus Group will research and develop the Healthy Environments for Children Alliance Club materials to allow the programme to be rolled out in the District. This will be done in partnership with the Public Health Office and the Area Education Offices.

The group will develop a youth and community development capacity building programme and work on development education programmes here in Ireland. This will include the development of the CSPE schools programme.

The Marketing Focus Group will be responsible for consistent messages across all FOL material, and will ensure that this messaging portrays FOL’s ethos. It will be responsible for the production of all FOL PR and marketing material, press releases and branding.

The Finance Focus Group will be involved in the co-ordination of fundraising events throughout the year. They will be responsible for investigating new funding opportunities for FOL, and generating new ideas for fundraising. This team will work very closely with the Marketing Focus Group.

All focus group members will also assist with volunteer training going forward. Laura Ahern will chair the Health Focus Group. Jenny Gannon will chair the Education Focus Group and Eva O’Mahony will chair the Marketing Focus Group. Eva, Laura and Jenny are very experienced volunteers with FOL and have participated in many of FOL’s Harambee projects since its inception.

The Board would like to thank them for taking up this new challenge and wish them the very best of luck with their new roles.