Romania Trip 2011

Posted by Alex Ball on 18th July 2011

We recently took two lads from leatherhead to Romania as part of a team to help with some building projects in the Romany villages of Soard and Szekelyszenterszebet, in the region of Harghita, Transylvania.

The trip was in partnership with Heart for Romania who have been working in Romania since 1990; and RegenerateUK who also brought young people on the trip.

We started with a road trip leaving leatherhead on Sunday 3rd July and arriving in Romania on Tuesday 5th, stopping off in Frankfurt, Prague and Budapest along the way! It was quite an adventure. The team discovered a naturally heated open air spa and swimming pool in Budapest which was the highlight of the journey.

Once we arrived in Romania we had 3 days of building work to complete, working on projects that would benefit the local community in partnership with key community leaders. The young people on the trip got a chance to turn their hand to some new skills and were able to make a real contribution to the work.

On the last day we were taken around the village by our hosts and they explained some of the issues facing people living in these very poor conditions. One of the key issues is access to clean water. This gave the team something to think about and they have since come up with some plans to raise money to build 3 wells. A newly dug well only costs 200 Euros!

The benefits for the young people on this trip are significant. The chance to see the needs and living environment of a place experiencing abject poverty can have a real impact. As well as being able to contribute positively, work as part of a charitable team and meet people that really appreciate their help is hugely beneficial.

We are now looking ahead to next summer when Heart for Romania would again like to partner with Liquid Connection and RegenerateUK this time working with children and young people from a range of Romany gypsy villages.

Thanks for reading,
Alex