Kay O’Loughlin Kennedy who along with her husband was one of the co-founders of global humanitarian aid agency Concern Worldwide has died after battling illness for a very long time. She had been taken care of recently by Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm in Dublin. In December 1967 Mr and Mrs O’Loughlin Kennedy convened a meeting at their home which back then was located on Northumberland Road in Dublin.
Shocked by atrocities
The meeting was called to hear Father Raymond Kennedy speak. Father Kennedy had recently come back to Ireland from Nigeria and gave what can only be described of a harrowing account of a vicious civil war that was being waged because the province of Biafra was seeking succession from Nigeria. In response Nigeria was trying to starve Biafra into submission.
Deciding to set up an organisation
The people that were present at the meeting decided the best thing to do was to set up an organisation that would help feed the people of Biafra. The group would call itself Africa Concern, it was later on the agency would change its name and mandate to Concern Worldwide. The immediate aim however was to raise money to support a mercy flight to provide supplies to starving children in Biafra.
The group is truly global
Africa Concern was formally established in March 1968 and right from the very start it was a multidenominational organisation which included trade unionists, Freemasons and a Methodist Minister. By the end of the year the group had managed to raise a staggering £3.5 million for the people of Biafra. To put that into context in today’s money that is the equivalent of €64 million. Concern Worldwide now employs over 3,200 people who work in 27 of the world’s poorest countries.
