One day, while I was working with Noeline, I was feeling overwhelmed by all the suffering in the world. How can you keep going I asked Noeline. She told me this story.

A man and his grandson went for a walk down to the beach. It had been a rough day and the tide had been high. When they arrived they found that hundreds of thousands of starfish and been thrown onto the beach by the storm and they were all dying. Immediately the man started to pick the starfish up and throw them back into the sea. The boy, copying his grandfather’s example, started to do likewise. After about half an hour the boy was getting tired. He straightened up and looked around him. He was struck by the amount of starfish still on the beach. He turned to the old man. “Grandfather, what is the point of this,” he said. “Look at all those starfish dying. What difference can we possibly make?” His grandfather, who was picking up a starfish, turned and looked at the boy right in the eye. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said as turned and threw it into the ocean.

Sometimes, when we look at all the sorrow and suffering in the world, we can feel overwhelmed. Whatever we do to bring a bit of joy into another’s life, we can never erase all the troubles of the world. Instead of getting caught up in the misery, just remember, when we do what we can do, we do make a difference.

I find this photo one of the most moving of Noeline’s images from Ghana. This woman sits here all day, every day breaking larger rocks into smaller rocks for building purposes.

In July 2010, I (Julie Brown) am hoping to accompany this remarkable woman, Noeline Haylett (or Mama Noeline as she is known in Ghana) to the Volta Region for three weeks. The work Noeline does to support Ghana is a labour of love, which she fits around her full time job and her beloved animals.  She has gathered to her a community of volunteers and supporters throughout Ireland who are inspired by her selfless service and her relentless drive and passion for helping some of the poorest and most marginalised people. This website offers only the briefest outline of her work and does not do justice the years of fundraising, promoting and the hard physical graft of collecting, sorting and packing containers. This woman does not waste a single minute of her life and every penny given to her is used effectively to make a difference in the lives of those who are in dire need.

She lives in the simplest manner in a small cottage in Kilmeena, Co. Mayo. Her home is unheated apart from on a Sunday evening when she burns recycled wood for water for a bath. Her van is used to collect items for the containers and to ferry sick animals to the vet. If we all lived like Noeline, there would be no poverty in the world and there would be enough resources for all.

When in Ghana, Noeline like to see the difference her support is making and see how else she can be of service. A highly practical woman, she will spearhead projects whilst over there, working right at the coal face. During the three weeks we will be over there we will spend a week at Ho, a week on Dwarf Island and a week in the North where Noeline has heard of a nun working with people who are living in terrible conditions.

Noeline has already placed her fellow travellers where we can be of some use. I will be working with a local school and with community groups.

The last time Noeline was in Ghana she spent €10,000 of her own money on needs that she saw whilst over there. These included some small acts of kindness such as buying all the baked goods a woman sold every day first thing in the morning giving her the gift of her first ever day to herself. Ordering a big stock of soap from a young boy and ensuring he was given the commission for them so he had time to play.  She bought several women out of hospital who were detained there as they could not pay their medical bills and she fed several villages on the day she visited providing enough fish, bread, rice, oil and soap for every-one.

Fish was bought to the village and given to the people along with oil, bread and soap.

Clean water is an issue that is very close to Noeline’s heart and she is fanatical about drilling boreholes as a means of providing a ready supply of clean water. Without clean water the locals can get all kinds of diseases. For example the female guinea worm, once it gets inside you can grow to over a meter in length and eats its way out of the body usually in the vicinity of the genital area.
Inspired by Noeline’s work a group of people in Kilmurray collected enough money together to sink a borehole (not a well which dries up). At 300 feet they reached water and now four villages, which all share the borehole, have clean water.

Boreholes cost €7500. Noeline’s father used to drill boreholes in Africa and knows local prices. He says that is good value. They are drilled by machine and can go down for two hundred feet or more. A pump is then fitted on top and all the water is clean and does not dry up. Two boreholes are now in place. One in N’Kwasi by the little, little school and one on the mission land in Ho.

Noeline also has sent water tanks over to the various schools she supports.  She explains "We can't drill bore holes for every-one, so I give them these tanks and show them how to attach them to the gutters. Now they don't have gutters the way we do, so I show the local people how to make them.  The rain water runs down into the tank and it seals so the guinea worm can't get in. I am trying to send out a tank each school." Noeline has provided several other villages with 2 kitchen sieves each with laminated instruction showing how to strain their drinking water to catch the water fleas which host guinea worm eggs. This means that the life cycle of the guinea worm is broken before they enter mammals

Noeline never rests on her laurels and constantly breaks new ground to meet the needs of the poorest of the poor. On one of her visits to Ghana she met Dominic Akyereke, a friend of Rev Sylvanus. He told Noeline about the poverty and dreadful conditions on Dwarf Island and Noeline pledged to help the people there. In Dominic’s words, “Many people there live worse than animals.”

Dwarf Island is one of the many islands on Lake Volta. Situated in the Volta region of Ghana, Lake Volta (8,800km2) is the biggest man made lake in the world. It was created by the construction of the Akosombo Dam, a hydro-electric power project. The island has 12,000 people living on it. They are reliant on farming and fishing. Often when there are floods, their crops are ruined. Malaria is also rife.

Noeline has sent two containers over to the island. As well as medical and educational aid, she gave watering cans and old mayonnaise buckets providing the islanders with the means to effectively water their crops. She raised money from one of her many cake sales to buy a motorbike to be used as an ambulance to take people to the clinics when they are sick. The bike also makes connections with local isolated families, supplying medical and other aid.


A photographer friend of Noelines, (Barbara-Ann Murray) donated vouchers for professional photographic sessions that raised enough money for a boat (the Barbara Ann). Dominic says the boat has provided a lifeline to the people. “The people in our village will never be hungry again, because if we can’t farm we will be able to fish” The boat is also used to make deliveries to the more inaccessible parts of the island and can also collect much needed supplies from the mainland.

Noeline also sent over as many lifejackets as she could get her hands on. Because the lake is man made and was created by flooding surrounding areas there are many dead trees under the water. The ferry boats, which are often heavily loaded, sometimes hit submerged tree stumps.

Just before Christmas  2007, the boat that Dominic was on tipped over (a regular occurrence) and 75 people were drowned. Dominic was saved as he was wearing a life jacket that Noeline had previously sent over.

One small story that made a big impact on me was that I had given Noeline some wooden slatted chairs that I had got from Lidl for about €4 each. I had found them really uncomfortable. Noeline had sent them to Dominic as he was getting married. When the Elders of the community saw that Dominic had received these chairs, they told him he would be very selfish if he was to keep them for himself. Dominic agreed and they were given to the Chiefs to be used in tribal meetings. 

Noeline also sent over doors for the islanders. These were sought after to keep out snakes, scorpions and other animals.