Youth club build hope in Romania

The group, representing Taghnevan Youth Club partnered with Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland and Caminul Felix for this venture. The group spent a total of seven days working on the building site, building a row of three dwellings that will eventually house adult orphans.

The group was greeted on site the first day by a stack of timber, hammers and nails, which they spent the first two days sorting and cutting to make roof trusts, door and window frames and the exterior walls. By day three the groups started to see their progress when the walls were raised and bolted in place.

The group went on to build the interior of the houses while at the same time insulating and plastering the exterior and the houses took shape when two days were spent erecting the roof. A lot was achieved in this timeframe despite the 4.30am wakeup calls and 40+ degree heat the group had to endure each day.

The group were volunteering for Habitat for Humanity which is a non-profit, non-denominational Christian housing movement. Their goal is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action.

They invite people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need. To date more than 300,000 homes have been built in over 90 countries providing simple, decent homes for more than 1.5 million people.

A Habitat home is completed somewhere in the world every 10 minutes. The group from Taghnevan worked on a specific project while in Romania as Habitat have partnered with a local charity called Caminul Felix.

This charity receives abandoned children or from orphanages and the streets and integrates them with foster families. They grow up with their foster families and are provided with education and support until they are 18 years old. When they reach 18 years old, they choose which way they want to go in life, although they don’t have a home and they don’t even have the possibility to buy one. And the family, with which they have grown up, doesn’t have the capacity to help in this respect. As such, the partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Caminul Felix have been working together to build accommodation for these young people.

A lot of time and effort was invested by the group and their journey began over a year ago. Capacity was built among the young people by participating on both Personal Development Programmes and Leadership Courses facilitated by the SELB Youth Service and the process proved to be a great opportunity to build relationships with other group members and enhance their own capacity and acquire new skills. The new skills were put in place to begin a fundraising campaign to make the venture possible. Following eight months of commitment and dedication the young people managed to raise a staggering £26,000. They want to take this opportunity to thank all individuals and businesses that helped in any way to make this journey possible.

The group have now returned having broadened their perspectives, enhanced their skills and changed the lives of strangers in such a short period of time. This group of young people have laid down a marker to their peers and demonstrated what can be achieved if you are willing to make the effort. This is a group of young people who are now held in high esteem by the Youth Club they represented. They are proud of their achievements as are their parents and the community of Taghnevan.