President McAleese held a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin this afternoon to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of Ireland's largest charity, Concern.
Founders John and Kay O'Loughlin Kennedy, who were instrumental to setting up the original Africa Concern in the response to the famine in Biafra in 1968, were in attendence along with 200 Concern volunteers, supporters and staff.
Paying tribute to those present, President McAleese said: "Nothing you have done was ever done for thanks or recognition but on this anniversary it is only right that we stop for a moment and take time to acknowledge all that has been done, why it has been done, how it has been done and the wonderful people who, in a huge variety of ways have been the hands of Concern's work."
"To the people at the receiving end of your help, you have been a welcome, even a miraculous friend on the ground as well as a formidable champion in high places where policies and plans are made that impact directly and indirectly on the everyday lives of the poorest....I thank each of you here, thank you to all who have helped grow Concern into the global phenomenon it has become."Concern's chief executive Mr Tom Arnold said: "Over the past 40 years we - and the many millions of people on whose behalf Concern has worked and is working - have benefitted enormously from the practical generosity and solidarity of communities across Ireland."
The charity, which currently employs over 3,200 staff, works in 28 of the poorest countries in the world and supports people through programmes in health and nutrition, education, HIV and AIDS and agricultural and livelihood security.
To mark its 40th anniversary, Concern will host a major conference on hunger in Dublin this October.
It will be attended by an internationally-recognised line-up of speakers. An art and writing competition is also planned for school students, with the winners announced at the conference.