Many years ago, or at least it feels like it, I took part in a charity trip with my Alma Mater, Dublin Institute of Technology that would change my perspective on life for the better.
In my youth, my mind was set that only the big things counted and if you could only do something small, it won’t make much of an impact. How my mind was changed.
It was this trip to Post- Chernobyl Belarus, where I first realised how incorrect I was and that so much could be achieved with so little. An old rugby buddy from D.I.T organised and led the troop of my bright eyed and bushy tailed students from D.I.T and Ulster University Magee, Derry. None of us had been to this part of the world before and to our shame, knew a lot less about it than we should have.
The experience centred on raising money prior to the trip, and cycling from orphanage to orphanage to see what the money would be used for. Before we left for Belarus, we were cautioned that some of the young people we would be meeting were disabled, both physically and mentally, but in our naivety, little did we know what was in store.
When we arrived into the first orphanage in Rechista, the whole convoy was stopped in our tracks at the reception we received; hundreds of people, small children to young adults were standing outside waving flags and cheering to welcome us. Those who could, ran and walked to greet us, the others had little other choice but to wait till we moved up to them. (We found out later, the children had been waiting for this day since the previous year.)
The children put on a magnificent show to welcome us, and then the tour. After the initial shock was over, we noticed the disrepair the building and grounds were in, how little they had and how much they needed.
In the week we were there, and with the intention of just raising money for the orphanages; two disabled ramps got completed, a playground got finished, a garden area covered in clay got cleared and we put as many smiles as we could put on faces that truly needed them. Anything that needed to be done, we did, if we didn’t have the tools, we made do, but we did it.
By the end of the week, there were no tears left, nor were there regrets as even though we could only do a little, I know it meant a hell of a lot!
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little” Edmund Burke
Patrick
