Carlow duo saved the sight of hundreds of Kenyan people
Travel writer Brendan Harding, left, and optometrist Bernard Jennings, right, who founded the volunteer charity Asante Kenya Eye Care, with solicitor John O'Sullivan at the African Musings event Photos: © Michael O'Rourke Photography 2026
BERNARD Jennings and Brendan Harding, who in 2007 set up the Asante charity to deliver optometry treatment to people in Kenya, sat down to discuss their philanthropic deeds in Carlow Methodist church recently.
It was also a way of remembering Sr Goretti Ward, the former matron of Carlow District Hospital and Bethany House, who died in Dublin on 31 October 2025.
After 20 years of delivering babies in Carlow, Sr Goretti had to retire. She found that "her skills were well sought after and appreciated" in Nuu, a bush country in Kitui District, Kenya, said Bernard, so she lived there on and off for the rest of her retirement.
She was the one to invite Bernard, an optometrist, and Brendan, a travel writer, out to Nuu to instigate a sight-saving programme.
"She was just a lovely nun. She had a humanity and a sense of humour that I never found in any other nun," said Bernard.
Bernard and Brendan tested the eyes of approximately 10,000 people over the ten years it operated while also diagnosing 1,300 people with cataracts. The pair would fundraise for the trip and travel to Kenya around Easter each year. After being diagnosed, the nuns brought busloads of people to the hospital outside Nairobi to have their cataracts removed.
"It made a massive difference to the lives of certain people because cataract removal is such a relatively easy operation these days, compared to 30 or 40 years ago," said Bernard.
Asante also gave out hundreds of pairs of glasses, which had to be made of glass rather than plastic, because they would scratch easily in the desert environment.
The charity, the name of which means 'thank you' in Swahili, paused their yearly trips after a terrorist attack on a university two hours from the Mercy nuns' base in 2015; 148 people were killed in the attack. The group was due to go again in April 2020 but was prevented by the covid-19 pandemic.
However, Bernard has plans to travel to Kenya again in 2028. Donations made by the 110 people at last month's Methodist church event raised €2,000 that will be put towards the trip or donated to the Mercy nuns if the plans fall through.
Singer Jolly O'Rock was there with her group Aha Storytellers to sing African music and renditions of Irish traditional songs.
"They brought African colour and music to the evening at the start and at the end. It just reminds you why you went to Africa in the first place," said Bernard.
He remembered that Jolly herself shared that she had a cataract removed when she was nine years old and was so grateful to have her vision restored. Her story "made a connection between the audience, the singers and ourselves. It just shows you that the practical benefits of these things, we don't normally see them," said Bernard.
Bernard thanked all the people and businesses who donated money to the project over the years, including Braun, Netwatch, the Irish Fight for Sight charity and Intel, who fundraised to build a school.
"It was fantastic to be part of it," said Bernard.
