IN 2018, I was one of the ten lucky pupils to join Missio Scotland on their Get Involved Globally trip to Zambia. It was an incredible experience and it truly has changed my life for the better.
During our time in Zambia, we visited Providence Home, a home for children with physical and mental disabilities. While there we were all made very aware of the differences between these children and children who have the same disabilities at home. The children here all slept in the same room and the older children helped the sisters who run the home to look after the younger children. They didn’t have a lot to play with or a great amount of space and it made me realise how lucky we are in Scotland.
Some of the other girls and I taught the children classic nursery rhymes like Wind the Bobbin Up, If You’re Happy and You Know It and Wheels on the Bus. Watching the children’s faces light up when they got to sing and shout and stamp their feet was the highlight of that day and possibly the biggest learning experience for me. The day spent at Providence Home is the clearest in my mind to recall and I wouldn’t stop talking about it to friends and family.
In November 2017, in order to fundraise for the trip, I held a St Andrew’s Day Ceilidh and managed to raise more than £2000. This gave me the idea that I could do the same thing only this time I wouldn’t be fundraising to get myself to Zambia, I’d be fundraising for Providence Home.
Last Autumn, we began planning it and with the help of Missio Scotland I managed to get in contact with Sr Vandana of the Little Servants of Divine Providence. She sent me the bank details for the home so that when the money was raised we could send it to them directly.
On November 23, we held another St Andrew’s Day Ceilidh in my parish hall. The hall itself isn’t very big so we could only accept a maximum of 120 and we managed to sell all the tickets while leaving a few people disappointed. The live band were fantastic and walked us all through traditional Scottish and Irish Ceilidh dances. There were raffles both for the children and for the adults at the Ceilidh, the classic 'Guess How Many Sweets in the Jar' and 'Guess the Teddy Bear’s Name.' The most fun came from the game 'Hit or Miss,' where classic well-known songs are played and the objective is to guess whether or not it was a Number 1 Hit.
By the end of the night we had managed to raise over £1000 for Providence Home.