A church primarily used by the Brazilian community has donated toys to an Irish children’s hospital to give thanks for being “made very welcome” in Ireland.
The Assembly of God church in Carlow is collecting new toys and financial donations for Crumlin Children’s Hospital, as well as for a mission providing food and support to orphaned children in Mozambique.
Project leader Marcio dos Santos explained that Crumlin Children’s Hospital was chosen to express gratitude for the treatment it provided to a child at the church who was diagnosed with cancer.
“The Crumlin Children’s Hospital did a great service for her, it was amazing. She’s very well now and this is just to be thankful for the service they did for them.”
The church, which is predominantly attended by Brazilians, is established in various other locations across Ireland and is led by pastor Lincoln Pilar.
In previous years, the group previously ran Christmas donation drives for women’s refuges and children in Ukraine.
Mr dos Santos said: “The majority of people in the church are all Brazilians but we feel very thankful.
“And we feel very welcome as well in Ireland because it’s a big challenge for us to leave our country and start a new life in your country.
“But in Ireland we feel very, very, very welcome and we are very thankful for all the Irish people that helped us here and we do whatever we can do in Ireland to help because we feel we’re in our own country.”
The group collected dozens of new toys and giftwrapped them for delivery to children of all ages at the hospital.
In addition, the group also collected hundreds of euro for its chosen charitable causes through a GoFundMe campaign.
The church’s GoFundMe campaign is at https://www.gofundme.com/f/jesus4all-a-christmas-of-solidarity
