Charity founder wins Person of the Month
Maureen Forrest of The Hope Foundation charity has been chosen as August Cork Person of the Month. Pictured at the award presentation l/r George Duggan, Cork Crystal; Eoghan Hedderman, Metropole Hotel; Anthony O’Donovan, Masterkabin; Maureen Forrest, Person of the Month; Clara O’Mahoney, AM O’Sullivan PR; Manus O’Callaghan, Awards Organiser.
The founder of a charity which has brought hope to thousands of children living in dire poverty has been honoured as Cork person of the month.
Mogeely native Maureen Forrest established the Hope Foundation in 1999, and since then the charity has worked with street children in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) in India, improving the lives of the most marginalised street and slum-connected children and communities.
The Hope Foundation works to ensure the basic rights of those children and their communities, enhancing their dignity of life through protection, health, education and economic development.
Some 24 years after she founded the charity, Ms Forrest recently stepped back from day to day Hope operations, but she continues to work with the organisation as its founding president.
Thousands of people from all over the world have united to fundraise for Hope’s projects, and thousands have visited the projects in Kolkata, including up to 400 Irish transition year students annually.
The initial goal was to run a residential childcare centre for 25 street children and raise €25,000 a year to run the centre, but today the foundation is celebrated for running 60 projects including 10 Residential Childcare Centres, a life skills training centre and restaurant, and a hospital.
Ms Forrest was born in County Cork, living here for most of her life, and settling down on a farm in Mogeely with her late husband Dick.
She has three children and eight grandchildren.
‘Maureen has spent decades working to better the lives of some of the most impoverished children in India. She is an inspiration to the people of Cork and a shining example of what it means to be a global citizen’, said awards organiser Manus O’Callaghan.
The Hope Foundation is set to celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2024.
Ms Forrest’s’s name now goes forward, with the other Cork Persons of the Month selected this year, for possible selection as Cork person of the year at a gala awards lunch to be held at The Metropole Hotel in Cork’s City Centre on January 26th next, 2024.
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