Rachel Shaw and the gift of volunteering

Volunteering in one of the poorest parts of India not only enriched the lives of the children there but also the life of 18-year-old Rachel Shaw from Multyfarnham.

Rachel Shaw, a Leaving Cert student in Wilson’s Hospital School, is currently preparing for Christmas season and is running a Shoebox appeal for Team Hope.

Rachel will be in the Bank of Ireland for the Team Hope Christmas shoebox appeal on Friday November 6.

It’s just over a year since a volunteer from Team Hope showed a video of children receiving a shoebox for Christmas in Wilson’s, and so began a year of volunteering for Rachel, who has since travelled to Jaipur, India, where she worked on a school building project.

“We saw all the little kids opening the shoeboxes and their reaction was just phenomenal. They were screaming and shouting over a packet of crayons. That really hit home. So from there it made me really want to do something.”

Rachel made up a couple of shoeboxes but felt she needed to do something more. Looking online, she found Projects Abroad, and was drawn to building projects.

On August 2, Rachel, the only Irish volunteer, travelled to India.
“Every day, we’d drive out to the slum. They had a school there already and what we were doing was building a new classroom. We dug the foundations, mixed the cement, then just started laying blocks. They put the roof up then and we painted the inside.”

“It was just so different, the culture was just so completely different,” Rachel says of the experience.

“Possibly the best part of the whole experience were the children in the slum. They couldn’t speak English, apart from a few basic words, but the school was helping them learn it.

“They were so happy every day we went in and were mad to help us build, handing us bricks and simple stuff like that.

"Most days we’d spend some time playing with them after work, or we’d help the teacher correct their school work.

"They loved cricket and dancing, they taught us some traditional Indian dances, which was great craic!

“Two of the evenings for our ‘socials’ we went to an orphanage and played soccer with them.

"I was expecting it to be really sad but was completely amazed at how happy the kids were even though they had so little!

"The atmosphere was so upbeat and really made you realise how lucky we are and feel grateful for all the things that we have.

• Read more about Rachel’s adventures in next week’s Westmeath Examiner.