An anonymous donation of £2,000 surprised local Catholics on Sunday and doubled the total raised in July for projects in Kenya.

The money will pay the remaining debt on the drilling of a well which provides clean water for 7,000 families in the Kenyan bush. It will also help fund the education of children in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Worshippers at our lady of Mount Carmel RC church at Silsden and St Joseph's RC church at Cross Hills spent July raising cash for people in Kenya.

In recent years the Catholic community in and around Silsden and Cross hills has raised £6,000 for Operation Kenya. Of that total, £4,000 has been raised in the last month.

A spokesman for the parish says: "A lot of people have worked hard on all sorts of fund-raising efforts so we were all delighted to learn that an anonymous gift has doubled this year's total. The plight of the poor people we are trying to help has obviously touched many hearts."

Work on local fundraising started after two Kenyan priests were invited to West Yorkshire to attend the ordination of a student they met while he was working in their homeland. The two Africans stayed on in Silsden and Keighley, standing in for local clergy during summer holidays.

Thus the Aire Valley Catholics met Fr John Makewa and Fr Francis Mbura. Fr John runs the parish of Katangi in northern Kenya, parched bush country where little or no rain has fallen for years. Fr Francis is an education officer in Nairobi where a few pounds buys a place in school and a few more buy books for the student who takes it.

Fr John was back in Sutton recently, thanking local people for their help and telling them how their money is used. He explained that the debt on the well was one of the most pressing issues. A local spokesman says: "It was good to know that the money we raised will help to pay the final instalment."

on the well. At one fund-raising event a couple of weeks ago, we sat on the lawn under a - temporarily - blue sky in beautiful surroundings, talking about people who walk miles for a drink of water and we realised just how lucky we are!"

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