Annual Report 2006

Overview of the Year

2006 was an important year for the wider Irish development community. In September the IMRS welcomed the publication of the Government's White Paper on Irish Aid. In particular we value the clear sense of vision and direction it provides for the contribution Ireland can make in responding to the enormous and urgent challenges of securing human dignity for billions of people around the world. Through the efforts of our members, our missionaries in the field, we are happy to report, that the financial support of Irish Aid and the wider Irish public continues to be used on a daily basis to open the door to a better future for millions of people throughout the world. As missionaries we were also glad to see recognition in the White Paper of the pioneering role which missionaries have had in development co-operation. We welcome this as part of an increasing appreciation within the development world for the distinctive and specific contribution which faith based organisations make in the development arena.

IMRS strives to be an organisation that is of service to our members. With the help of a dedicated and efficient staff, with the commitment of the Board members and the liaison officers and with the interest and concern of all our members here at home, we strive to offer support and assistance to our missionaries in the field.

During 2006 our missionaries continued to dedicate themselves with great creativity and resourcefulness to translating our precious human yearning for a better world into the multitude of specific actions and steps which real development requires. We pray God's blessing on them and on the people they serve. In 2007 we will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Paul VI's Encyclical, Populorum Progressio, On the Development of Peoples. As we continue to work together with our many partners I am sure that we will continue to be inspired by our shared Christian conviction recalled in that document that
'God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people' (Populorum Progressio, 22)

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