A GROUP of members of Warrington Youth Club are to travel to Romania next month to provide a summer activity camp for young people from a very poor Roma community.
The group, headed by Rob Watson, will be working with Love Light Romania to provide the camp.
They are not only traveling to the camp, in Transylvania, but are also fundraising to enable the project to take place.
The Roma children are living in very bad conditions, with no hope. They are not educated and have no future other than their current existence.
But recently, with Love Light Romania, a registered Romanian non-government organisation, they have begun a learning skills programme which teaches them life skills they can take back to their community and which will also assist them in their future when they will have the opportunity of employment with a self sustainable project.
Part of the programme is the summer activity camp which the Warrington youths will be joining and which has a focus on outdoor pursuits, encouraging team building and helping to raise their confidence and self esteem.
The role of the Warrington youths is to be-friend the Roma children, become role models and help them with their achievements throughout the camp.
Rob Watson, from Warrington Youth Club, said: “The group traveling to Romania to volunteer are all young people from Warrington aged between 16 and 19, all of whom have been involved with Warrington Youth Club in some way already. All of them have done volunteering projects in their local community and have jumped at the chance to have a similar impact abroad. They don’t all know each other that well yet, but by the end of this experience they’ll all have new friends for life. Between them they come from a range of backgrounds and cover all the different areas of Warrington between them.”
They have already planned a bucket collection, exercise bike challenge and face painting in the town centre, a sponsored walk up Snowdon – all probably in fancy dress – to raise money for the trip, as well as individual sponsored activities such as cake sales and busking.
“They are all so excited to help make a positive difference to the young Romanian people’s lives and hopefully they’ll be inspired to go on making a difference throughout their lives whether it be at home or abroad,” Mr Watson added.
