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Italy
In 2022,  partly driven by the experience of the Covid lockdown of the previous years, we decided to spend three months living in a remote village in the mountains, home to 10 families and 6 tiny churches. A lot of the former homes were derelict as a result of  decades of migration to the big industrial centres of Milan and Turin. The result is large tracts of mostly mountain areas slowing returning to  nature. We felt very welcome in this small community. The local Mayoress started posting community notices in both Italian and English. Between our pidgin Italian and google translate we managed to communicate with everyone. We rented a beautiful 2 bedroom home in the centre of the village. It featured a fantastic terrace that looked over the most amazing valley. At night, the light pollution was almost non-existent leaving us with a most magnificent view of the Milky Way.

The village was located close to the Italian Rivera, Monaco and Nice with easy access to Venice, Florence and Tuscany. This region is famous for being the home of pesto and the taste and variations of the ingredientsincludefresh ingredients such as Basil, truffles, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese Living in northern Italy offers a unique experience. The region is famous for its picturesque landscapes, rich history, and delicious food and wine. The rolling hills, lush vineyards, and stunning architecture  make for a beautiful backdrop to everyday life. Just as impressive is the beauty and simplicity of every village and small town scattered throughout the pre-alps.



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Nepal, Stories, Travel
Dharmanagar is a village and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2,934 persons living in 478 individual households. Its about 160km south of Kathmandu and  right on the border between Nepal and India. The village is a mainly rural village with people generating income from agriculture. Our connection with this village is Action Aid and its child sponsor program. The child were are sponsoring, Sujit live here with his family and when we decided to visit, we also requested to stay with the family – a request which they kindly granted. Sujit and his extended family action aid-92 The journey down from Kathmandu – a mere 16
0km took us nearly 8 hours. The road down was a bit like Bolivia’s famed road of death. This wound its way through the mountains, at times properly paved and at times no more that dirt and rubble. The road was fairly badly damaged by the earthquake action aid-7 action aid-8 Despite this, the  journey down was enthralling, made better by our young driver who was extremely careful.  The scenery was absolutely breathtaking action aid-9
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Nepal, Photography, Stories, Travel

My wife and I have been sponsoring children via the Action Aid charity for over 30 years.  Our current sponsored child lives in the village of Dharamanger on the Nepal-India border. This is an area of Nepal that has suffered the ravages of war over the centuries and is economically extremely deprived up to this day. We planned our holiday this year to include a visit to our sponsored child. Our plan was to stay with the family in the village and that’s exactly what we did! Over the course of 3 days, we were granted a unique opportunity to meet with our sponsor child, his family and wider friends and community. To say that we were made welcome is an understatement We have seen first-hand the impact that Action Aid is having on the ground to people’s lives – not just the children. We met a young man who was destined to work in the fields and is now qualifying as a teacher. The village has several challenges and we want to be able to help. The costs of all the projects will be €25,000  Most of the fund-raising will go to a school extension and child care facilities to allow young women earn a small income in the fields. What we are planning to do is organise a walk in Glendalough. (see Maps) The main walk will be the white route which is 9 km and should take around 3 hours to complete. We can also organise a subset of that for those who cannot manage the white walk. The date for the walk is Saturday April 8th. More details will follow as we get closer. What we are looking for is participation and/or  sponsorship. Anyone wishing to participate, please contact us via the email addresses below and anyone wishing to donate can do so via iDonate on this link: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11362026_nepal-schools-project.html or contact me via gerry.kerr@gmail.com or trish via kerrtrish1@gmail.com Details of what the funding is to be used for is outlined in this document from ActionAid http://www.gerrykerr.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/School-Project-Nepal.pdf Thank you    Gerry & Trish

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Nepal, Photography, Stories, Travel
Kathmandu was our first destination this year and  given that we intended to travel last year, we were concerned about how much damage had been done to the city From what we’ve seen, typically, the newer part of the city is relatively intact, however, the older parts of the city have significant damage – in particular, the main Darbar Square has been devastated.


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Nepal, News, Stories, Travel
We visited Nepal this year and the highlight of the visit was a side trip  to an Action Aid project in Dharamanger, about 160km south of  Kathmandu. The village is where our sponsored child lives and it was something that we had planned  with Action Aid Ireland well in advance. It was an amazing, humbling experience and we were treated like royalty. This is a collection of images from the village and the journey down.  It was an amazing experience and we met some extraordinary people. I hope to come back to this in a later post and talk about some of the people who most impressed us.  Action Aid are doing amazing work here and deserve every support. For more information, please see http:/www.actionaid.org



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Environmental, Ireland, Travel
This mini-project started about two years ago when I walked into a shop that I used to visit as a child in the early 1970’s. To my amazement, it had not changed one bit in the intervening 40 odd years, including the lady who worked in the shop. I grabbed my camera and took a few images. Anyway, it stated me on a path to find similar shops around the country and the collection is growing – very slowly. This shops are disappearing forever and there are very few left! From a combined Pub & shop in Athy to a little  hardware shop in Macroom with a tame Robin, and a “general store” in Roscommon selling carbolic soap, the shops, the people and their stories are  what make me want to look for more of these before they disappear. If  anyone knows of similar traditional shops still in operation, I would really appreciate a heads up.


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Ireland, Photography, Travel
This is a short collection of some of the environmental portraiture I’ve taken this year across Ireland. My favorite is the first one  -its the one that I’ve had he most trouble taking :-). These cover quite a bit of ground from Ennistymon to Listowel in the south and Cavan and Derry in the north


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Photography, Travel, USA
I spent a week in Washing DC recently and had an opportunity to do a small bit of sight-seeing while there. Its a very impressive city with a lot to see and do.  These are my favorites from  the trip.  They are mainly buildings and places although there are one or two people thrown into the mix. I Thought that the family visiting a grave in Arlington particularly poignant.    
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