A COLLEGE lecturer from Horwich has helped to bring a ray of light into the lives of desperately ill children in Romania. Joinery specialist John Barry, of Buckingham Avenue, assisted in designing and building a hospice for HIV-positive youngsters in the former communist country. Thanks to the hospice, seven children have had their lives turned around.

And it is so successful, youngsters from nearby orphanages come to have a ten-day holiday to escape their drab surroundings.

John, a 59-year-old part-time lecturer at Manchester College of Art and Technology, first got involved after reading an appeal in the Bolton Evening News five years ago.

Along with 12 other builders from Bolton, he went out to Prejmer, near Romania's second city Brasov, in Transylvania.

Run by national charity Infant Aid, the aim was to convert a disused farm into a modern facility - costing £100,000.

But when the group arrived, the mission seemed almost too daunting.

John, who has two children and two grandchildren of his own, said: "It was a big undertaking.

"Some of them said it would never be completed when we first saw it.

"We had lots of problems in the first year because it was such an old building.

"Then there was the problem of building materials. Even simple things like sand and cement were hard to obtain."

During several trips in the following 12 months, they converted the barn and workshops, putting in a floor, drainage, damp proofing, windows, toilets, a kitchen and bedrooms.

John said: "Sometimes I sit back and think of those who were walking around shaking their heads saying it would never work."

The seven youngsters taken in were from orphanages. They had suffered years of poor treatment, often just left in a room with basic food and water because the authorities did not want to waste money on children thought unlikely to achieve adulthood.

The innocent youngsters had mostly caught the HIV virus from infected blood imported from Africa after disastrous blood transfusions were given in the Ceaucescu era intending to boost their strength.

John said: "When the kids first come, they are rocking and crying and subdued. All it takes is a good diet and tender loving care.

"Now they have been given an extra chance at life."

Work on the project is still continuing so that even more orphans will be able to go there for a holiday.

John is now helping to build a children's day clinic in Focsani, about 80 miles from the hospice, and he is appealing for volunteer carpet fitters.

Anyone who can help is asked to ring 01204 699985.

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