Galway clergywoman raises awareness of poverty

A GALWAY Clergywoman has been growing vegetables in a unique way to raise awareness of Christian Aid Week 2026.

Lynda Peilow, Provost of Tuam and Rector of the Galway Group of Parishes, has been showing off the vegetables she’s been growing in empty milk containers and tin cans.

Her gesture is inspired by an urban farming project in Nairobi that’s helping people to grow vegetables in cramped city spaces. It allows people to produce enough food to feed their families and surplus to sell for an income.

With space in short supply, the vegetables are grown on rooftops, vertically on walls and on any available scrap of land, using containers such as plastic yogurt pots and discarded food cans.

Provost Lynda’s act of solidarity marked Christian Aid Week, which this year focused on the charity’s work to help people living in poverty in Dagoretti, a low-income neighbourhood in the Kenyan capital.

Each year, tens of thousands of people across Ireland and the UK get involved in raising funds to support the charity’s work to reach people living in poverty and crisis across the world.

Provost Lynda supports Christian Aid through her ministry by organising fundraising events and encouraging her parishioners to donate. In December, she raised more than €1,400 for the charity’s work with collections taken up during two carol services at St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway.