Cultural ties with Belarus are being formed by a group of Waterford transition-year students engaged in a fund-raising drive for an orphanage in Minsk.
The 15 students at Newtown School are attempting to raise £5,000 to fund an art therapy programme for the 200 children at the Novinski Institute, an orphanage where two of the Waterford pupils, Jeanette Wrynne and Sarah Lynch, then both 15, worked last summer.
They have also established links with students at an English-speaking secondary school in Minsk and the Belarussian Orphanage Project. The pupils in Minsk have sent examples of Belarussian arts and crafts to Waterford in exchange for information about Irish culture.
Ms Karen Keogh, the Newtown students' teacher, said the orphanage in Minsk had enough food and a reasonable standard of accommodation, so it was decided to focus on the arts as a means of providing support. An educational project was considered particularly appropriate for the school.
Funds raised by the students were used to sponsor a visit to Belarus in February by Ms Anne Murphy, a trainer from the Levanagh Centre in Cork, who held a week-long art therapy conference with teachers at the orphanage. Teachers at the Minsk school linked with Newtown also attended.
A teaching co-ordinator had been appointed to ensure the project was implemented, Ms Keogh said, and it was hoped that in the long term it would become self-financing.
The Waterford students were really enjoying organising the project, although "they were a little bit downhearted at first when they found it hard to get the money in". It is hoped, however, that £3,000 of the target fund will have been raised following a charity dinner on Friday week, April 27th, at the Woodlands Hotel.
Tickets, at £50 a head, are still available, and Ms Keogh said they would like to hear from anyone in the business community who wished to support the event. They can contact Newtown School at 051-860200.