Charity completes Moldovan project

Sixteen volunteers from the UK have successfully completed a challenging building project in Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, in order to improve the living conditions of impoverished children.

The 11 day programme was the third and most significant of its kind run by The Moldova Project, a charity founded by Emma Watson who studied English at the University of Exeter from 2009 to 2012.

Volunteers carried out repairs on badly damaged houses in Ciuciuleni, a remote village in the Moldovan countryside, to create better living conditions for families and ensure that they are insulated from Moldova’s bitter winter. Moldova experiences extreme weather variations according to the season; temperatures can drop to -30 degrees in winter, but were nearing 40 degrees during the project.

The volunteers, who ranged in age from 20 to 70 and were from a variety of backgrounds, worked tirelessly in the heat and forged strong relationships with the families they worked with. The British Ambassador to Moldova, Phil Batson, said “Such projects really do show Britain at its best making a real difference to the lives of Moldovan people.”

Supporters of the charity and the volunteers fundraised for the project during a programme of events which included sponsored runs and ‘buy a brick’ initiatives in schools. The money raised by these activities was used to purchase the building materials, as well as equipment to run activity sessions for children.

The Moldova Project has close links with Exeter, with two of its trustees having graduated from Exeter University. A number of Exeter students made the news in 2012 after completing a 160 mile fundraising walk of the Thames, and the charity has since continued to successfully recruit Exeter graduates to its building projects.