Press Release

BAA Gatwick's "Fulcrumites" get ready for a trip of a lifetime

 

06 February 2007

Students from local schools and colleges close to Gatwick and three BAA employees are preparing for an
experience of a lifetime when they fly to India this week to embark on a project to complete a home for orphans and destitute children.

BAA Gatwick’s Fulcrum programme is funded by the BAA Communities Trust and is a overseas volunteering programme designed to offer students the opportunity to work overseas and fulfil their ‘Certificate of Personal Effectiveness’, a diploma equivalent of an A grade at A-S level, or 70 UCAS points for entry to University.

The 19 students, aged between 17-18, have spent around six months fundraising to cover the costs of their travel and will also contribute to the costs of building and completing the orphanage. The student volunteers, plus three business leaders from BAA, who will act as mentors, will leave the UK on the 8 February and spend just over two weeks working with the local people to complete the home for the children of workers from the salt flats. The home will give the children the opportunity to live in the village - close to schools- thereby opening up educational opportunities for them.

The Gatwick Fulcrum team will travel to Mumbai then onward to North West India to Zainabad in the Rann of Katchchh where they will work in 40 degree heat alongside Indian builders or ‘mistries’- to complete the home. The Gatwick team will build on the foundation work of a team of students from schools around Heathrow, who went to the area to work last November.

The students will also take toys and clothes donated by family and friends for the children. The orphanage will eventually be home to 80 children and will officially open on 19 February whilst the volunteers are still on site.
One of the student volunteers, Damien Martin, 18, from St Wilfrids School in Crawley said: "I hope that the experience will help to develop my personal skills, team work and help me build my confidence in preparation for University. I am counting down the number of days before we leave for India and am so excited about the trip!"

BAA mentor Kirsten Jack who works as a Corporate Responsibility Analyst for BAA said: "I’m really looking forward to the trip but I know it will be hard work for us all. It will be a real challenge, not only physically, but also emotionally, witnessing first hand the poverty of the people of the region. But it will also be an enlightening experience, living and working within a completely different culture for two weeks. It will be an experience that will stay with us forever."

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