Mission Direct - Volunteers helping the world's poor

Building a partnership

Go Mad is the brainchild of Graham McClure, a builder from Northern Ireland. He was sent to help design and build a cathedral for the Diocese of Mara in 1994, with the support of his local Anglican church in Blackheath, London. Since then he has returned many times to oversee its completion and lend a hand to many other projects. Graham started Go Mad to bring more volunteers across to help in this highly effective work. Among many building, health social and technological projects, Graham has partnered in the following projects:

• - Organising farmers’ co-operatives in partnership with the Diocese and local villages. The work involves listening to farmers needs involving irrigation, yield and technological assistance.
• - Providing education for unschooled children and setting up child sponsorship programs.
• - Supplying and devising suitable technology to make building easier and more affordable in remote and poorer regions.

Building a community

The benefits of these and many other projects have been significant in the numerous scattered communities of Mara:

• The work amongst farmers has drawn the Church closer to local rural communities and helped farmers work in closer partnership with each other. The increased yield and introduction of livestock and dairy cattle has increased levels of nutrition and cut the amount of death and disease in the region.
• The introduction of technology and materials suitable for the building work in the area has made it easier to construct more buildings – aiding productivity and improving living conditions for many thousands
• The Cathedral, which can accommodate up to 3,000 worshippers, has been a vital centre of operations for the Church – allowing many hundreds who had previously worshipped out of doors, to forge a stronger community identity as the Church.

In short all of these projects arise from local Christians’ determination to be a vital force for social change in the area as well as a visible sign of God’s love for the nation.