115 Kids Travel To The USA From The North

Project Children, the organization which has brought young children and interns to America since 1975, welcomed 115 children from all over the North of Ireland last Thursday. 

Set up by Denis Mulcahy to alleviate the burden and unpleasantness thrust upon the children of the Troubles, the project involves American families who offer to look after an Irish child for a month. 

Staying in places such as Syracuse, Atlantic City, and Long Island, Tom Kinirons , the Long Island co-ordinator told the Irish Examiner that he is in charge of 21 children on Long Island this summer.  "I usually start looking for host families in March," he says.  This is the fourth year Mary Laxton and her family has hosted a child, and this is their second consecutive year to welcome 12-year-old Niamh Mowbray from Belfast.

Mary remarked, "When I heard about it I just thought it would be a wonderful thing to do, and it was." 

Niamh's father, Patrick Mowbray, took part in the scheme over thirty years ago, staying with Mike Jordan who still volunteers for Project Children today.   

Thirty nine interns arrived at JFK on the same flight the previous Thursday, and are working all over the USA, in New York, Colorado, Michigan and Florida.