BPEC awards Richard Steward £1000

BPEC awarded Richard Steward, a plumbing tutor from Suffolk College, £1000 towards a project in an Eastern European country.

A group of 35 volunteers travelled to Moldova to transform a village school. They went as part of TEECH (Telecoms Eastern European Challenge), a charity started by BT employees.

The volunteers had just eight days to build four indoor toilet blocks and distribute much-needed supplies but worked so hard they got the job completed a day early. A full selection of images is available via our Facebook.

After driving three and a half days to reach the school, they set to work. They sanded and painted walls and plumbed in toilets and sinks. They wired the rooms and installed lighting and hand driers. And put in boilers to provide hot and cold running water.

Stig Steward says: “Now the children have indoor toilet facilities before the very cold Moldovan winter sets in. Before they were using holes in the ground. It is brilliant that BPEC were able to support the charity with the very generous donation of £1000. I was also able to train the caretaker of the school into some minor repairs if required to the bathrooms. The school were really grateful with the work and provided us with a show by the children to say thank you”

BT provided fuel and use of a lorry to transport equipment and supplies to Moldova. Donations arrived from across the UK to a sorting centre in Colchester, and even included hospital beds.

The volunteers set up a centre in one of the school rooms to distribute shoes and clothes to local families. The team also drove supplies out to people who could not travel into the centre.

Stig says: “Some people in the surrounding area were in a very bad way. The roads aren’t great, so if you’re ill or infirm it can be hard to get any aid. It was brilliant to be able to use my plumbing skills to provide facilities for children who really need them”

The Life Award

The Life Award offers grants of up to £15,000 to projects that use plumbing knowledge and skills to improve the lives of others in the UK and abroad and where possible to transfer the skills and knowledge to others in the process.

For more information please click here.