Down team travels back to Romania to help the orphans

Down team travels back to Romania to help the orphans

10 September 2014

BABY clothes and blankets knitted by local volunteers have been hand-delivered to children in Romania.

A team of builders, careworkers and helpers from the Downpatrick area travelled to Romania in the summer as part of a charitable project to improve the conditions in orphanages and respite centres for children with disabilities.

This year a group of 35 travelled from Downpatrick, Ballynoe and Ardglass as part of Helping Hands Romania to work on a day centre for children with learning disabilities.

During their stay, they delivered several cases of clothes to children, which were hand-knitted by three local groups Ballynahinch Knit and Natter, Downpatrick U3A and Drumaness Monday Club.

One of the local volunteers, Conor McAndrew, who has travelled to Romania with the group several times, said he believed the knitted items would be greatly appreciated during the approaching Romanian winter.

“Although the children we visited in hospital were very well cared for, there is a huge problem with poverty,” he said.

“Conditions can be very difficult and one of the hospitals we visited had no windows.

“We also visited a camp to deliver some of the items knitted locally. The people were very welcoming and grateful.

“It is life-changing to see the conditions many of them live through.”