Building a better life for children for 20 years

From Belarus to Ethiopia

What began as a simple volunteering trip to an orphanage in Belarus by two Co Galway men has now grown into an ambitious international charity supported by several communities.

Based in the village of Ballygar, Building for Children works tirelessly to provide a better life for hundreds of visually impaired children in a town called Sebata, about 40 kilometers from the capital city of Ethiopia.

The organisation recently marked two decades of volunteer work and fundraising and are looking forward to another ambitious project to be started next year.

The group was first established in 2006, under the name ‘Friends of Belarus’, after Sean Gavin and Martin Coleman from Newbridge saw the need for support for the children who were experiencing appalling conditions in orphanages in Belarus.

“When they came back, there was so much interest in it that we decided to set up our own group,” said David Mulrooney, treasurer of the charity Building For Children and a businessman based in Ballygar.

“We were working in orphanages that were affected by the Chernobyl crisis and the children were living in horrendous conditions,” he added.

The newly formed group undertook several projects in those institutions, helping to improve facilities and living conditions for children.

They soon discovered that the need for help extended far beyond Belarus, when they were approached by another Galwegian Dr Ken Carr, who had adopted two children from rural Russia.

“We travelled out to one of the orphanages and found that the conditions were just as bad as what we had seen in Belarus,” recalled David.

Following the visit multiple projects were carried out in Russia, including one in Transnistria, a breakaway state from Moldova for a few years.

MOVE TO ETHIOPIA

Another turning point came for the group in 2019, when they were approached by Pat and Mary Clarke, who had spent time working at a school for blind and visually impaired children in Ethiopia.

They invited the volunteers to visit the school and what they found there was “shocking” and “far worse than anything” the group had seen in any other place. The experience in the Sebeta School for the Blind, changed the direction of the charity.

The school was home to approximately 300 blind and visually impaired children, who attended primary school.

David told The Tuam Herald that the school had six existing dormitories, all in desperately poor condition. Toilets were not functioning properly, windows were broken, doors were damaged.

Some children had no mattresses, while others slept on mattresses on the floor. The facilities were overcrowded and unhygienic.

“Broken glass was scattered here and there, while the children were walking through the dirty water in blocked toilets. It was horrendous, and to think that these kids are either blind or visually impaired, makes matters even worse.

“It would be bad enough if you had your sight, but without any sight, it was really dangerous for them,” explained David.

“At that stage we changed our name from Friends of Belarus to Building For Children, because we were no longer going to Belarus,” he said.

The first focus for the group was to provide a safe living space for the girls. So, they built a dormitory in 2019 that is now home to 33 children.

RETURN AFTER COVID

The volunteers returned to the school in 2022 and decided to renovate the existing dormitories one by one.

David explained that the Covid outbreak and a civil war in Ethiopia prevented them from returning to the school any sooner.

“As soon as Covid died down and things got a bit better, we went out again,” he said.

Two dormitories were refurbished in 2022, and the team returned in 2023 to renovate two more. However, they soon realised that just renovating the buildings was not enough because they were not being maintained properly.

So, they decided to hire a local person to oversee the maintenance and cleanliness of the dormitories and started paying incentives to the housekeepers for keeping the space up to standard.

“We also noticed that there were some children who had learning disabilities. They were not going to classes and had nothing to do all day other than sitting against a wall. So, we turned a disused classroom into a playroom for those children,” said David.

One after another the issues kept arising and the volunteers kept working to try and solve them all. They renovated six dormitories and spent thousands of euro to dig a well, so that the children can have running water in these buildings.

Buffer tanks for each dormitory were put in place, since the electricity supply is unreliable and no power meant no water in the taps.

Following all these issues, they discovered another problem that was harder to solve with just bricks and mortar.

“We saw that all the leftover food and scraps from students’ plates were collected in a big pot. Then some older students would take that pot and eat those leftovers,” recalls David.

These were the students who had moved on to secondary school and could no longer live in the dormitories.

“They receive a small monthly grant of almost €4.50, which is not enough to cover food, rent, clothing and other expenses. So, they were trying to get free meals by eating the leftovers.”

Seeing this Building For Children decided to renovate a derelict building into a kitchen and dining space where these older students could get at least one proper meal per day.

A local woman is employed to prepare meal for 70 secondary school students every day, while a local supervisor ensures that the correct students receive the meals and keeps track of the programme.

Along with providing food and shelter to hundreds of blind or visually impaired students, the group also contributes to the local economy by hiring local people to do different work for the projects.

Currently, the charity has five permanent staff members who oversee the smooth operation of dormitories and dining space.

“We try and use as much local as possible to keep our costs down because at the end of the day it’s not our money,” said Padraic Conlon, Assistant Chair at Building For Children.

“The money given to us is a bit different than giving it to a bigger organisation because every penny given to us goes directly to the blind school,” he added.

Padraic believes that people’s trust in the organisation that uses their money only where it needs to be used, is what has contributed to the success of the charity.

A REWARDING JOB

Having achieved so much over the last two-decades, the organisation is still run entirely by volunteers, with a core committee keeping track of the administrative work.

“The work is very rewarding. The majority of people who go there get something out of it and want to come back,” said David.

Every year around 30 volunteers travel to Ethiopia. Each volunteer who wants to travel with the group is required to raise a minimum of €1,200.

This money covers the volunteer’s travel, accommodation and food while the remaining amount goes towards the project.

“A lot of younger people have shown interest in volunteering over the last few years, but the fact that they have no trade makes it a bit difficult.

“The team needs to be a right balance between tradespeople and volunteers, who are willing to work wherever they are needed,” emphasised Padraic.

Alongside volunteers, fundraising is another difficult task for the organisation. They mainly fundraise in the local community through events like quizzes, car washes, barbecues, barn dances and countless smaller efforts.

Over the years, the organisation has also received support from outside the local community. A priest in Florida donated €50,000 for the well digging, a Canadian Foundation donated $15,000, while another Finnish company donated €7,000 “when it learned the food was being used to feed secondary school students”.

Padraic told The Tuam Herald that over the last five years, the charity has spent an average of €100,000 a year on projects in Ethiopia.

“For the last two years we have also had funding of €10,000 each year from the Department of Foreign Affairs from the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa,” he said.

As Building for Children marks its 20th anniversary, it is also preparing to shape one its most ambitious projects to date. They plan to build two new dormitories for students attending secondary school, who are sleeping rough or living in unsafe conditions due to lack of money.

“We are planning to build one dormitory each for boys and girls. The site has already been identified on the school’s extensive campus, close to the boundary with the secondary school,” explained David.

David has drawn a plan with the help of a local architect Stephen Blake, and they are waiting for the rainy season in Ethiopia to end before they start the work.

UPCOMING FUNDRAISERS

The group are doing their best to fundraise for their latest project which is estimated to cost in the region of €250,000.

“We have a few major fundraisers every year, two of them are coming up in the next month,” said David.

The two fundraisers include a barn dance in Hughes Pub at Ballinamore Bridge on Saturday, September 5 and a Barbeque night at Shiven Inn in Newbridge on Saturday, September 19. Singer Seamus Moore will be playing at the event in Hughes Pub.