Coffee morning and book reading to help theatre company

Both men are teaming up in the venture to raise money for the charity Barefeet which was founded by former Dominican College pupil Adam McGuigan.

Barefeet was set up four years ago by Ballymoney man Adam and works with children who live on the streets in Zambia.

Every week the organisation works with 1,000 children who either live on the streets, have lived on the streets, or are at risk of running away from home.

In Zambia the `street children’ sleep in drains and doorways and under bridges. Vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse as well as drugs and diseases such as AIDS they are invisible to the rest of society.

Jim Bell will open his home at 31 Main Street for the coffee morning to help raise funds for the charity and an exciting addition to the coffee morning will be Tony McAuley reading from “Paper Boy”.

Mr MacAuley grew up at the top of the Shankill Road in Belfast at the start of The Troubles.

His parents were voluntary youth leaders who worked to keep children from the Shankill off the streets and safe at the height of the violence.

Mr MacAuley has spent the past 25 years working to build peace and reconciliation both in Northern Ireland and internationally.

“Paper Boy” is a memoir and follows the adventures of a 12-year-old boy who gets the job of delivering newspapers in the upper Shankill area.

Copies of the book will be available at the coffee morning with part of the proceeds going to Barefeet.

“Barefeet is helping to remove the stigma attached to being a child of the streets by giving these young people a voice and the skills they need to transform their lives for the better,” said Adam McGuigan.

“The organisation holds workshops in a variety of centres across the African nation where actors, musicians, acrobats and poets pass on their skills, culminating in an annual festival where the children showcase their work.

“Many of these performers have also lived on the streets themselves and the bond they have with the children is incredible.

“When you reach any major African city you will at some stage come across a young child barefoot and dressed in torn and ragged clothes. The child may be as young as six or seven, high on drugs, filthy and asking you for money,” Mr McGuigan said.

“These children are demanding, often volatile and always planning the next hit. They are exposed to physical and sexual abuse, they are invisible to most people and treated with contempt.

“These are the children Barefeet works with,” he added.

Barefeet has a strong team of supporters in Ireland and the UK, known as `Solemates’, and they are now a registered charity.

The coffee morning is being held from 10am-2pm at 31 Main Street, Castlerock. See you there!

For more information visit www.barefeettheatre.org