Portarlington school sending hundreds of uniforms to Africa

An entire Africa school community will all be proudly wearing Portarlington school uniforms soon thanks to a great initiative.

St Patrick's Boys NS switched to a new uniform when moving into their brand new building last month.

Rather than send the old maroon and grey outfits to landfill, they want to gather them up and send them to African schoolchildren in need.

Secretary Ailish Ridgeway came up with the idea.

"There would be hundreds of old uniforms in family homes so to tie in with the GreenSchools ethos and not send them to landfill, we have got in touch with an Irish charity called Mary's Meals who feed 1.4 million children in Africa. They will bring them out for us, probably to Uganda," she said.

"We are really excited about this in the school. To think that a whole little school in Uganda will be wearing the grey and maroon with our little school crest is wonderful."

The charity has a Backpack Project, where it sends out schoolbags filled with stationery and clothes to African schools. The uniforms will be added to the next consignment.

St Patrick's BNS is holding a collection day this Wednesday, October 16, from 5pm to 7.30pm. A representative from Mary's Meals will be there to accept the donations.

The Principal is Pat Galvin.