The gift of prisoners

Eoghan Keogh of Slí Eile, the Jesuit Outreach to Young Adults, recently handed over a cheque for €900 to the Hope Foundation, which works with street children in India. He did so on behalf of the prisoners in Mountjoy who are part of the Spirituality and Meditation group that he heads up in the jail. Last Christmas, the prisoners watched some video footage of Mother Teresa working with children in Kolcatta, and after some meditation and reflection on the video they decided to raise money for the work there. So they designed and made their own Christmas cards and they sold them through the Slí Eile office. Eoghan Keogh says the whole experience turned out to be a very important one for the men. In the letter below, they describe the impact.

OUR CHRISTMAS PROJECT

A group of us were doing the spirituality and meditation group, we attend it every Wednesday evening. During the class we were watching film footage on how Mother Teresa helped the people of Calcutta. We became overwhelmed with the problems the people of Calcutta had, so we decided that it would be great help to them if we actually did something about it. Therefore we decided to make up cards for Christmas as it was the Christmas season and we felt the need to help them at Christmas as they have little.  We called our project ‘The Joy to the World’.

We as a group thought we had it bad with our problems, with being locked up in prison and our family problems, but this was not the case at all. It was amazing to see how we could actually help and make a difference with us being in here, just proves we could do the right thing even being in here, as we are so used to doing the wrong thing. The spirituality Sli-Eile spirituality group played a huge role in helping us to discover our softer sides, it also helps us deal with our problems in prison as we sometime find it hard.

As a group we felt overwhelmed with joy, as we found out how much we actually raised which was €900 which was for such a great charity the Hope Foundation. We felt we could never achieve such happiness, but in actual fact we could. We had some great guidance through our spiritual guides Eoghan and Pauline who are brilliant people. We also have a dedicated member in the group Michel who helps us out with our problems in here, we call on him for advice when we need it. In ending we are all very proud of the chance to help the Hope foundation.

Yours sincerely

The Joy to the World Group