This page provides updates, news and information about St Paul’s International Project to Romania.

30 students from St Paul’s are visiting hospitals, clinics and orphanages in Romania and bring much needed aid and help to orphans and sick children in this country. The students are accompanied by Mrs Marion McMahon, Miss Michaela Downey and Mr Patrick Hollywood. 

Day 5 – Thursday 4 February:

It’s our 5th day here, and eventually we have snow in Romania. Today both groups reunited and started off the day by visiting Lunca children’s school. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by the children and their teachers who were excited. Inside we went into different classes of all different ages before gathering in the sports hall for some traditional entertainment from both the Irish and Romanian crews. The children in the school sang a few songs, then performed a play in many different languages and then showed us a few dances before we all joined in on the fun. After this it was our time to shine when Eve and Emily sang alongside Gemma playing the guitar. Afterwards it was time for our Irish dancers to hit the floor. The money we raised is going towards purchasing two laptops for the school and helping them to refurbish their gym floor.

While we were watching the performances a small group went to the TB clinic were a donation was made to go towards clothing and cleaning products. The group came back to tell us about the scenes they observed, and shared photos of the beautiful children and babies.

After this we headed into the town and spent two hours in Brasov. In the afternoon we split into our groups again were group 1 headed to Prejmer which is a day centre for Romanian gypsy children. While here we painted the girls nails while the boys went head-to-head in a pool tournament. We brought Lisummon jerseys and other clothes to share out. While group 1 was at Prejmer, group 2 went to Cristiana. It is a nursing home for the elderly. Here we interacted with the people through talking and singing before taking them up to dance. We then went into the rooms to visit those who were bed-bound. We then called it a day and returned to a very white hotel!

Photos of the project are uploaded to the St Paul’s International Project Twitter account.

Day 4 – Wednesday 3 February:

Fourth day in Romania in the heart of Brasov, team Romania 2016 woke up fresh and early to head to Bradet. The team was full of anticipation on arrival and were welcomed openly by the residents and staff. We began by going to the housing side of the beautiful buildings where we were shown around the bedrooms of those who stayed there. It was tough for us as we seen rooms which were very small with nothing else but beds that slept four. We then had PE class with some of the younger children where we played basketball and other games.

We then walked over to the school building where we interacted with students during their break, they were overwhelmed by the gifts we provided and it was so unbelievably touching to see their eyes light up at what we would generally consider the most simplest of things.

The school bell of Bradet then rang and the children had to return to their schooling activities and we followed the principal of the school to their staff room where we were kindly provided with delicious home made donuts. There was a beautiful craft shop within the village of Bradet, which allowed us to purchase hand made gifts by the residents of Bradet. It was a positive experience for us to be able to buy a keepsake from our visit there.

Feeling heavy hearted, we left Bradet to travel to Prejmer day centre where our spirits were lifted by the wonderful children there who brought a smile to all of our faces. They had dancing music and colouring pictures of Ireland flags set up for us. The whole team came out feeling overwhelmed and ready to move on to the final orphanage of the day. We slowly pulled up outside a small building, we skipped off the bus full of enthusiasm. We all went to the side of the bus to take in aid for the boys and girls aged 7-14. As we walked through the gates small children came crowding around us. This was a very difficult orphanage for all the pupils. The children joined us in playing football, bomb and blowing bubbles full of excitement. The time passed by very quickly as we were all having such a fun time. It was a true eye opener.

Followed by a tiring day we then got a quick rest in the hotel and after we had a ‘challenging’ walk up the mountain only to be happily welcomed in open arms to a barbecue restaurant, here we enjoyed various foods from the Romanian culture!

Day 3 – Tuesday 2 February:

Day 3 in Romania began with all students from both schools going to breakfast at 8:30. We then made our way onto the bus and travelled a short journey to bring us to Chip and Dale orphanage. This was an orphanage for boys aged between 8-13 year olds, our group brought a various amount of supplies to the boys and for this they were very grateful.

After meeting the boys within the orphanage we realised quickly they enjoy sports. We played numerous rounds of bomb and enjoyed it but unfortunately the St Paul’s pupils had no victory!

We then travelled to Brasov and had lunch at a pizzeria. That afternoon we made our way to Albina and Magura Codlea. Within this centre we met both boys and girls aged between 2-18 some of which had mental and physical disabilities. Although many of our students found this visit the most challenging yet it was still a memorable experience and we all enjoyed interacting with the children in numerous ways, the most popular activities were piggy backs, the football game and of course the singing of Justin Bieber songs!

Unfortunately the students were not allowed to visit the infants of the centre due to infections although the teachers were permitted to do this and the staff found this very difficult.

After a difficult day we all were ready for some fun, so we all walked to the ice rink close by our hotel. Some students and teachers took to the ice really well while others just fell!(Not naming any names – Ms Downey however this wasn’t the worst of it Mr Hollywood would not even set foot on the ice.) We then made our way back to the hotel and had our dinner, the night ended with some craic and a sing a long in the lobby!

Day 2 – Monday 1 February:

Today we started the day with an early start, waking up to a lovely breakfast. We separated into two groups and we went on our way to separate orphanages.

First, we all stopped at Metro, the local supermarket for some supplies. Group One went to Dacia first, a school and home for young boys. Group two went to Rupea, an orphanage for girls.

After a quick lunch, we changed over to visit the other orphanage. It was a long day of travel, but seeing the children get so excited made it worth it. After dinner, we all settled down in the lobby to have a quick quiz and a good night’s craic.

Day 1 – Sunday 31 January:

After an early start in our first day in Romania, we began with a visit to Metro where we bought much needed supplies for Victoria Boys orphanage with the money we raised through our generous fundraisers. We then went into Brasov town where we got our lunch at a place of our choice.

With everyone fed and watered we travelled to the Victoria Boys Orphanage to deliver our supplies to them. We spent time with the boys who were delighted to see us and it was a great experience for us. We found out that most of these boys are orphaned by parents who travel to other parts of the world to find work, some of their parents are in Ireland.

The visit finished with an exciting soccer match, Romania V Ireland. All of our boys as well as Cliodhna, Caoimhe and Blaithin of course took on the Victoria boys. Caoimhe was in nets and unfortunately let in three goals but Michael didn’t let our side down scoring a hat-trick and Dylan scoring another goal secured the St Paul’s side a win!

After our first eye opening experience of the trip we were all on a high and the bus trip back to the hotel didn’t seem as long because of the sing song led by DJ John and Richard! We arrived back to the hotel after a long but enjoyable day, we all went for our evening meal and after this everyone freshened up for the evening ahead. On our first evening the students from both schools came together and organised many donations such as clothes, toys and sweets into the different groups, this left us with all our supplies sorted for each day and each visit. Both schools mixed and had a greats night craic in the lobby.