Caring Becky to help orphans in Romania
8:57am Thursday 29th July 2010 in News
WHEN she was just six years old, Becky Watson saw a TV programme highlighting the desperate plight of Romanian orphans and knew she wanted to help.
Now, 20 years later, she is preparing to head to the country as a volunteer to fulfil her long-standing ambition.
The Bury Social Services worker will go to Slatina, about three hours from the capital, Bucharest, to work with children and adults living in extreme poverty, many of whom will have severe learning and physical disabilities as well as HIV and Aids.
Miss Watson, of Bradshaw, was so affected by a programme she saw in the early 1990s that she has always wanted to go to Romania to help.
She said: “It was secret filming in the orphanages and I was shocked.
“The conditions for the children were awful and it upset me — I had never seen anything like it before. Every now and then I have thought about it and doing something like this.
“I did not know how to go about it, and it can be expensive, but then I found out about the Wishing Well charity.”
Miss Watson will travel with the organisation, which works with disadvantaged children and families in the UK, Romania and across Africa and Asia.
She leaves on August 10 and will work at a summer school for children in the mornings and an adult institution in the afternoon, running activities, for 10 days.
The administrator, who is based in a Radcliffe office, said: “I am really excited. If I can make a difference to one person, it will be a worthwhile trip.
“It is a bit strange to be going 20 years after having the idea, and I wish I had gone sooner, but I am going now and that is all that matters.”
Miss Watson has paid for her flights, about £115, and is fundraising to cover her expenses. She needs about £200, and is aiming to raise the same for Wishing Well.
Email R.Watson@bury.gov.
uk or donate at justgiving.
com/Becky-Watson. To find out about the trip and the charity, visit the Facebook group Help Becky raise money for Romania 2010, or wishingwellcharity.org.uk.
