Coffee cups at the ready, biscuits steady, now let's get dunking to raise money for local charity Barefeet

Mr MacAuley grew up at the top of the Shankill Road in Belfast at the start of The Troubles.

His parents were voluntary youth leaders who worked to keep children from the Shankill off the streets and safe at the height of the violence.

Mr MacAuley has spent the past 25 years working to build peace and reconciliation both in Northern Ireland and internationally.

The writer and broadcaster has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio Ulster and is a champion of integrated education.

Paper Boy is a hilarious memoir and follows the adventures of a 12-year-old boy who gets the job of delivering newspapers in the upper Shankill area.

With a splash of Brut and a swagger the young MacAuley is more interested in the Bay City Rollers and the Beatles than the IRA and UDA but that is the time in which he lives and has his own thrills and mishaps.

Copies of the book will be available at the coffee morning with part of the proceeds going to Barefeet.

The registered charity was set up four years ago by Ballymoney man Adam McGuigan and works with children who live on the streets in Zambia.

Every week the organisation works with 1,000 children who either live on the streets, have lived on the streets, or are at risk of running away from home.

In Zambia the `street children' sleep in drains and doorways and under bridges. Vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse as well as drugs and diseases such as AIDS they are invisible to the rest of society.

Barefeet is helping to remove the stigma attached to being a child of the streets by giving these young people a voice and the skills they need to transform their lives for the better.

The organisation holds workshops in a variety of centres across the African nation where actors, musicians, acrobats and poets pass on their skills, culminating in an annual festival where the children showcase their work.

Many of these performers have also lived on the streets themselves and the bond they have with the children is incredible, according to Adam McGuigan.

"When you reach any major African city you will at some stage come across a young child barefoot and dressed in torn and ragged clothes. The child may be as young as six or seven, high on drugs, filthy and asking you for money," Mr McGuigan said.

"These children are demanding, often volatile and always planning the next hit. They are exposed to physical and sexual abuse, they are invisible to most people and treated with contempt.

"These are the children Barefeet works with," he added.

Barefeet believes these children deserve a childhood and some fun and that is exactly what the organisation is about.

"Scratch the surface and you will get to know some of the most inspirational and imaginative personalities.

"They are amazing, fiercely loyal and all they need is a little help."

The charity also works in partnership with the Zambian government at four-week rehabilitation camps designed to reintegrate children with their families or into education programmes.

On top of all that Barefeet is an award winning theatre company and in summer 2009 was invited to perform at an international theatre festival in Liverpool.

The team stopped off in Northern Ireland on the way home for a series of performances in Belfast, Derry and Coleraine.

Barefeet has a strong team of supporters in Ireland and the UK, known as `Solemates', and they are now a registered charity.

The Northern Ireland branch was set up to support the work being done in Zambia and to offer similar creative opportunities for young people here in the future.

The coffee morning is being held from 10am-2pm at 31 Main Street, Castlerock. See you there!

For more information visit www.barefeettheatre.org