Launching Irvinestown’s Cherish Sure Start initiative at the Bawnacre Centre on Monday, Ms de Brun said the government had invested £5.8 million in 23 such projects.

    She said: “A lot of these initiatives that we see coming together in Irvinestown come from people’s willingness to give children here the very best.

    “Many children still fail to reach their full potential. There are still inequalities right from infanthood, through childhood and into later adult life.

    “Now every child deserves the best start in life and resources have been committed to achieve this,” Ms de Brun said.

    According to Sure Start co-ordinator, Maeve McGuigan, the aim is to provide a nurturing environment for the first few years of a child’s life, so promoting emotional, psychological and physical well-being in later years

    The project will build on existing early-years provision to encourage effective child development, early identification of health problems and special needs and socialisation of young children.

    An extensive range of planned projects includes a toy library, health visiting, speech and language therapy, dietetics advice, second language work, counselling, advice clinics and a breast feeding support group, among many others.

    Ms de Brun went on to visit the Arc Healthy Living Centre in Sally’s Wood where she planted a rowan tree on behalf of the Cherish initiative.

    This tree symbolised creativity, inspiration and enthusiasm and represented new opportunities sought in the face of adversity.

    Runner-up in the Nurse of the Year awards, Jenny Irvine, welcomed Ms de Brun to the centre, which is almost complete, with some of the rooms already carpeted.

    The centre will provide a home for many of the schemes carried out under the Cherish initiative, along with community services such as drug awareness, youth activities and healthy eating.

    Ms de Brun said: “The importance of providing early-years services in rural settings cannot be over-estimated.

    “They help children to develop and to learn as well as helping them to overcome social and physical isolation,” the minister said.

    For many, the visit provided a first glimpse of the interior of the Arc Centre, expected to be complete within weeks. The centre will open in October.

    The airy interior is in marked contrast to the original appearance of the four terraced houses which over the past year have metamorphosed into the healthy living centre.

    Irvinestown architect Alastair Keys, who designed the structure, explained that the main aim was to unify the two-storey house and three adjoining bungalows, incorporating the accommodation required by the client, while introducing an open, airy aspect.

    “One aim was to unify it and make it identifiable as a centre and try and get some idea across of what went on within it instead of four terrace houses,” he said.

    The building incorporates a main concourse where community art can be displayed, and a large bright multi-purpose room has been added at the top. Outside one of the external doors to this room is a semi-circular area which will lend itself to theatricals planned by centre chairman, Ted Maye.

    As many as possible of the internal walls were retained in the final plan, although some were not load-bearing and could be removed to open up the space, Mr Keys explained.

    Some aspects of the plans have changed as the structure took shape. For example, last week the directors decided to have a path put in at the top of the site, easing access for the elderly and those in wheelchairs.

    Following her tour of the premises, Ms de Brun was off again, this time to visit Nurse of the Year, health visitor Ann McCrea, who is based at Irvinestown Health Centre.

    Mrs McCrea showed the minister the equipment used in her ground-breaking Human Milk Bank, the first of its kind in Ireland.

    Breast milk is donated by mothers who have an excess supply, and is frozen, stored and transported to hospitals throughout the UK where it is used to give premature and sick babies an extra chance.

    Mrs McCrea explained that the scheme gave sick babies a better chance of survival and often speeded up their recovery. Not only do they benefit from the advantage breast milk has over formula, but their immunity is boosted if they are fed milk from a variety of donors.

     The project is organised in a similar fashion to the blood donor scheme and Mrs McCrea received a lot of help from the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service.