Share a part of summer with a Belfast child

The Irish Children's Program (ICP) of Rochester is looking for host families to welcome a child from Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the summer of 2003. For the five week visit, the children will feel safe in area homes and forge friendships with children of other religions that they would never meet in their homeland. In Belfast, the neighborhoods are divided by religion, with concrete walls and barbed wire.

The ICP matches children ages 10 through 14 with a host child and his/her family. It takes a lot of courage for these kids to leave their homes, and yet their parents send them with the hopes to change things in their small, torn country. Those interested can learn more by attending an information meeting: January 6, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Our Mother of Sorrows Church, 5000 Mt. Read Boulevard, Greece and January 8, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Pittsford Recreation Building, 35 Lincoln Avenue in the village of Pittsford.

For information call the Irish Children's Program answer line at (585) 225-8550.