Tuam student to work with orphans in Calcutta school

By JACQUELINE HOGGE A TUAM student is to travel to India next month for two weeks to work with children in a Calcutta orphanage. Sinéad Rattigan from Cricket Court on the Dunmore Road in the town will make the trip during her Easter holidays from college, where she is in the third year of a social care degree at Athlone IT. 'I'm going over with a friend from college and we'll be based at the Loreto Rainbow School in Calcutta for two weeks,' she said. [private] 700 children 'There are about 700 children there, from two to 12 years of age and we'll basically be playing with them and doing things like arts and crafts. We're hoping to bring over books and DVDs as well as other artistic materials and we'll be doing workshops with them to entertain them and have some fun.' The Loreto School was founded by an Irish nun, Sr Cyril Mooney, in 1979 and now has six other schools throughout Calcutta. In 1998, Sr Cyril developed a specific program for orphaned, abandoned and street girls who are supported through their education with a home within the school. Half of the school's current 1,500 students are from poor families or the streets. Tuition is waived for poor children, while fees for students from affluent families subsidise the education of the poor children. Sinead is organising a series of fundraising events before she travels to India at the end of March and is hoping to match the €5,000 already raised by her college friend who is based in Westport. 'There are eight of us traveling and most of the others are based in Mayo so they've had a bit of a head start in terms of fundraising,' she said. 'But I'm hoping to do a day of bag packing at Super Valu in Tuam over the coming few weeks and I've a big event planned in The Thatch Bar, where I work, on Saturday March 3. 'I have people who are volunteering to be waxed for charity and there'll also be a Karaoke competition on the night so I'm hoping people will come along and support me. 'All the money I raise will go towards the children at the school as I'm paying my own travel expenses and we are staying at the school so accommodation is provided.' For further information or to make a donation to Sinead's fundraising appeal, contact her on 085 - 7071738. [/private]