Founder of African medical clinic to come to West Side

April 5, 2018 | Jordan Houston
jordan@thereminder.com

Mags Riordan, founder of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in Cape Maclear, Malawi, will be coming to the Irish Cultural Center to provide updates on the clinic.
Reminder Publications submitted photo.

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Founder of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic, Mag’s Riordan of Ireland will return to West Springfield to give updates on her Malawi medical clinic, as well as an additional HIV/AIDS operation she established last year.

Since its inception in 2004, the Memorial Clinic has served more than one-quarter of a million people – in an area that was traditionally served by one doctor. The volunteer-based clinic provides primary care medical services to the 15,000 people of Cape Maclear, Malawi. It includes an in-patient facility and operates 7 days a week on a 24-hour basis. The facility also employs and trains more than 32 locals, including patient care attendants, laboratory assistants, translators, counselors, kitchen, laundry, gardeners and security staff – the village previously faced a 90 percent unemployment rate. Last spring, an HIV/AIDS clinic was added to help the 14 percent of the population that suffers from the diseases.

Riordan, who is well-known to the area due to multiple fundraising efforts at the Eastern States Exposition, is scheduled to speak about her experiences with the African clinic, show photos and sell crafts from the village of Cape Maclear on Apr. 8 at the Irish Cultural Center. Author Suzanne Strempek Shea will also be in attendance with copies of her book, This Is Paradise: An Irish Mother’s Grief, an African Village’s Plight, and the Medical Clinic That Brought Fresh Hope to Both, which chronicles Riordan’s journey in Africa. Members of Billy’s Malawi Project USA, the registered nonprofit that helps raise funds for the clinic in the United States, will join the pair at the ICC to talk about their fundraising efforts.

The event is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 1 p.m. and donations are welcome. Lunch will be available to order at the Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub. The ICC has also created a special cocktail in Riordan’s honor. All proceeds from the cocktail will go toward helping the Malawi village.

“It’s a real opportunity to meet her [Riordan]. She lives very far away in Malawi about 8 or 9 months out of the year now,” said Shea. “It’s a chance to hear her story. She has a new slideshow and she’s going to be showing the changes that have happened in the village and the new HIV clinic. So, if you’ve heard her before, this is a fresh new look, and if not, you’re in for a total treat to meet somebody who is really making a difference.”

Riordan, a former guidance counselor from Ireland, created the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in 2004 as a way to memorialize her son, Billy, after he drowned in Lake Malawi in 1999. Billy was a world traveler and loved Cape Maclear. The 25-year-old died during his third visit to the area. When Riordan visited the Cape a year after his death, she noticed the lack of healthcare in the local village. The nearest medical facility was roughly 11 miles away and only five cars were available. With no prior medical experience, she raised the funds to build the clinic four years later.

The mission of the facility is to improve the overall health status of the village through provision of a medical clinic and health center. It provides educational opportunities and support. Shea told Reminder Publications that Riordan hopes to hand over the clinic to the village some day.

“That is the ultimate goal,” she said.

In 2002, Shea ran into Riordan at the Eastern State’s Exposition’s Big E. Riordan was doing one of her many fundraising efforts at the event when Shea overheard her speaking about the clinic. A former reporter and seasoned author, Shea approached Riordan to learn more. Eventually, the two agreed that Shea would write a non-fiction novel about the African clinic.

The Bondsville native spent more than three years doing research for her book, titled This Is Paradise: An Irish Mother’s Grief, an African Village’s Plight, and the Medical Clinic That Brought Fresh Hope to Both. She followed Riordan to Ireland and Africa. Shea published her book in 2014, and continues to donate a portion of the proceeds to the clinic.

“What I wanted to do was just really try to paint a full picture of what she [Riordan] does and who she is. I didn’t want to make this into a story that looks like, ‘here comes the white person to save the day,’ which is sometimes the case when you write about American Caucasians going off to start an effort somewhere else,” said Shea. “This is really coming from her heart. I wanted to tell the story that it was really an act of love.”

For more information about the event, visit http://www.irishcenterwne.org/from-malawi-to-morgan-road-mags-riordan-at-the-icc/.

To learn more about the clinic, head over to http://www.billysmalawiproject.org/index.php?page=home#main-content.

If you can’t make it to the ICC, Riordan and Shea are also slated to attend a few other locations. They are as follows:

Apr. 10, 1:30 to 4 p.m. - Harrington Hospital, 94 South St., Southbridge, Mass. To reserve a space, please phone 508-765-6473.

Apr. 11, 7:30 p.m., Gaelic-American Club, 74 Beach Road, Fairfield, Conn.

Apr. 12, 7 p.m. Suffield Country Club, 341 North Main St., Suffield, Conn.

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