Man on a mission to educate children out of poverty

IT may be just one year old but Fr Derek Leonard works in a parish which has a congregation of 100,000 people.

Fr Leonard was born in Limerick in 1971 and ordained into the order of Society of James the Apostle in 1996, then aged 25.

Currently based in the parish of El Resucitado in Lima, Peru, Fr Leonard has been on mission since 2006: “One of the great pleasures about being on mission, is being able to help young people, especially with regard to their education.

“Once we enrol the children we then check to see they are attending school. For the many who can’t afford the school fees, we buy school uniforms, school books and pay for fees.”

Fr Leonard expresses his thanks to Irish people who have contributed to the resources the mission needs to carry out its work.

“Thanks to the support of friends back in Ireland, at present, we are supporting a number of teenagers who are studying engineering, nursing, teaching, graphic design, medicine, secretarial studies.

“These are all teenagers who are involved in the parish and from extreme poverty.”

For recreation, the mission has set up a cinema.

“With my love for movies, I was partly indulging my own passion,” Fr Leonard quips.

“There is very little to do for young people here... With this in mind, we started showing movies every Friday night at 9pm in the parish centre.

“We have close to 70 teenagers each week who are treated to soft drinks and snacks.

“As an offshoot of this, we have started showing a movie on Thursday nights for a group of tougher teenagers

“We are using it as an outreach and to get to know those who are often in trouble with the local police.”