A community radio in a Northern Ireland town has raised over 100,000 pounds over Christmas to assist projects in India . Listeners to Ballymena-based radio station Radio Cracker, which annually broadcasts in aid of charity for four weeks before Christmas, have raised 102,000 pounds. Ballymena people listened to Mayor Joe McKernan as he implored them to help break the 100,000 pound barrier for the first time and prove they were among the most generous people in the world. Since 1991, Radio Cracker has been raising money for developing countries. The station is run by volunteers and last year they raised 85,000 pounds. Among the projects the funds raised will assist are: * The Ballymena Wing of the Priya Hospital in India where people with eye problems are cared for. * A Tear fund venture at a home for girls and boys rescued from child prostitution in India . * An Oasis project for fitting out workshops to teach trades to young people in Bangladesh . * Equipping the hospital boat MV Ballymena, built with funds sent from the town. It will provide medical care for hundreds of small villages on the upper reaches of the River Amazon that can only be reached by water. * A brick-built orphanage to replace several mud huts in a tribal village in India . There will also be a drilled well at the site. * A Tear fund enterprise to drill wells at five villages in a semi-arid district of Brazil. Past projects have included a school in Sudan; a small bakery in South America where street children can bake enough bread to feed themselves and provide cheap food for others in their neighbourhood, and a school and pottery workshop, also in South America, where street children are educated and shown how to make items which can be sold to the tourist trade. A herd of 100 oxen has also been bought to help to cultivate fields in an arid region of Africa .
