We have kids with us who were sleeping in burnt-out cars, living on their own at the age of 5

If Aisling Foley had stuck to her career plans, she’d be working amid the depressing debris of the property collapse, trying to negotiate settlements between banks and the developers who owe them money.

Not surprisingly, any of her colleagues who initially thought her mad for giving up her job as partner in the commercial property department of leading law firm, Beauchamps, to go on the missions in Africa, have done a lot of rethinking.

“It is a nice time not to be in the business,” she says. “But even if the economic circumstances were different, I would still have wanted to go. I was only going for a year but after six months I knew I wasn’t coming back.”

That was four years ago and Aisling says her family and friends have now accepted she’ll be staying in Africa for the foreseeable future.

“I thought people would think I was absolutely crazy or having a mid-life crisis but when I get home now people say, ‘we really admire that you went and did it — a lot of us stay because we are afraid to give up mortgages and jobs’. I think people respect that I did what I believed in.”

Aisling, 42, from Ballyvolane, Cork, works with the Home of Hope charity in Cape Town, South Africa, a unique school, community home and foster care support service for children born with foetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD).

FASD, which occurs when mothers drink during pregnancy, is tragically common in South Africa, with an estimated 60-72,000 children born with the syndrome every year.

“They have behavioural problems and learning difficulties and about of 80% of them end up in care,” Aisling explains.

“They’re not all from poor families but among the poorest the problem is exacerbated by malnutrition, sometimes drug-taking, often unstable homes and physical and sexual abuse.

“We tried to find special needs schools for them but there was nothing suitable so we set up our own. To our knowledge we are the only primary school in the world dealing with FASD.”

The work is all-consuming for Aisling, who also devotes most of her spare time to the children and in addition to her work with the school and its outreach educational programmes, she fills in as house parent in the community homes when needed. “Recently I was a single working mother-of-five,” she laughs.

Her rewards are anything but monetary as missionaries only receive subsistence pay.

“It is financial suicide,” she admits. “I have a mortgage [in Ireland]. I have no pension. I am an example of all the reasons why you should not do it but also all the reasons why you can do it.”

Fresh reminders of the reasons why she does do it come every day. “We have kids with us who were sleeping in burnt-out cars, living on their own at the age of five.

“I have nieces and nephews the same age and they can’t tie their own shoelaces — which is how it should be. The thought of them fending for themselves because their mother wandered off one day — I can’t imagine it.”

Home of Hope is a Catholic charity and Aisling’s faith is very important to her, although children and volunteers from all denominations and none are welcomed.

“It’s a big part of the reason I am there but I also do feel that even if you were never religious or spiritual, it doesn’t in any way seem fair that you can be born into a good family, get a education, have money and health and not feel that comes with a responsibility to give something back. Even if you never had faith I believe you must have a belief in fairness.”