BIG BUILD ROMANIA 2009

By Mrs Gorringe - Librarian

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.  1^st Peter v 10.

Sullivan Upper School has regularly supported the work of Habitat For Humanity through the class charity collections, but this year there was an extra special reason for supporting the charity.  Habitat For Humanity celebrated 15 years of operation in Northern Ireland by organising a Big Build to Romania, where, during one week in October, 250 volunteers built 10 houses for orphan families in a town called Beius.

I answered the call to go when a group from my church (Hillsborough Parish) signed up for the trip.  For all of us it was a big challenge. First of all our team of 7 had to raise £10,500 (£1500 each) in order to help build the houses and cover our travel costs.  At home, I organised a ‘stew night’ for all my friends and family, and at school there was a class collection.  In addition, I got sponsorship from staff and students to walk to work from Sprucefield to Holywood on one of my days off, arriving in school at 3pm, just before everyone left to go home!  Two weeks before setting off, the money was finally all raised and I looked anxiously forward to testing my DIY skills on site.

The work was physically demanding, up at 6am, walking to the site for a 7am breakfast and safety briefing and starting work at 8am, a break for lunch and finishing at 5pm.  We were all totally absorbed by what we were doing and spurred on by working alongside the Romanian families whose homes we were building.  All 250 volunteers met for dinner in the Principesa hotel every evening before retiring at a reasonable hour to get up and do it all again the next day.  At the end of the week, with 10 houses built, it was quite emotional to hand over the keys to the families and leave them to get on with family life in their brand new homes. 

I feel that taking part in a project like this was so worthwhile and had a long lasting impact on me and others on many different levels.  We worked together as a team, reaching out to another community, learning new skills, meeting challenges as we built and getting to know other people from different backgrounds, while living out the bible’s demand to ‘love your neighbour’.

To others I would say this - if you get a chance to take part in a volunteering project, grasp the opportunity and challenge yourself to make a difference in the world – you may surprise yourself just what you can achieve – I did.

P.S  Two Sullivan dads also worked hard on the Big Build in Romania -

        Mark Finlay (Grace Finlay 8P) and Steve McClelland (Josh McClelland 9J).