Templemore students embrace volunteer spirit with the Hope Foundation

This January, fifteen transition year students and two teachers, Ms Therese Boland and Ms Aileen Cashman, from Our Lady’s Secondary School in Templemore took part in The Hope Foundation’s School Immersion Programme.

The Immersion Programme gave these students the unique opportunity to travel to Kolkata for one week to visit HOPE projects on an educational and cultural visit and to witness first hand the work of HOPE and the extremities of life in Kolkata.

The fifteen students from Our Lady’s, Ciara O’Brien, Aoife Devlin, Clodagh Bergin, Jack Ryan, Kate Shanahan, Emily Kirwan, Sarah O’Sullivan, Chloe Whelan, Caelainn Luby, Kate Fogarty, Jean Rush, Eva Wallace, Jack Nevin, Chloe Morris and Anna Ryan have spent the last ten months fundraising for the projects, both together as a group and individually.

They were able to see first hand the amazing work that volunteers and staff from The Hope Foundation do in over 64 projects it has scattered across a population of 27 million people.

The group visited the slums, orphanages, crèches, rehabilitation centres for boys and girls homes, Special needs Centres, Life-Skills Centre and The Hope Foundation Hospital.

The group would like to extend its thanks to the staff and students of Our Lady’s Templemore, the greater Templemore community, parishioners, businesses, sports clubs, organisations and family members who all contributed in so many meaningful ways.

The trip while moving was indeed at times upsetting but it allowed the group to witness the amazing work being done by HOPE’s team of professionals.

It was a unique experience for our students and many of whom see it as the start of further voluntary work.