CHARITY leader John Rushworth has embarked on his latest trip to poverty-stricken Romania to continue working on building projects and to drop off gifts for orphans in the run- up to Christmas.
John, a garage proprietor and former Weekly News Community Champion who heads the Widnes-based Mission to Eastern Europe, set off last Thursday with a friend, Carl Edwards, and met a 19-strong team of Sheffield-based churchgoers working in tandem with the Widnes team on a building project called the Zuriel Centre in the town of Zizin.
The general purpose community centre and church development has been taking shape over recent months thanks to cash and plenty of elbow grease from the Mission to Eastern Europe and the a large EU cash injection.
And during the trip the team has been dropping off Action Men and Barbie Dolls at various schools, orphanages and villages throughout the country.
The dolls, the favourite toys of the orphans, were donated to the charity by Halton people following an appeal in the Weekly News.
And a Halton seamstress and her friends at a North Wales caravan park have been helping to make outfits for the dolls.
Staggering numbers of the toys were picked up by the team on Friday, having already been transported across Europe in a truck containing crucial supplies.
John said: 'I would like to thank the people who have so generously donated the Action Men and Barbies.
'We have shipped out 139 Barbie dolls and 100 Action Men. The children absolutely love them. We will be picking them up tomorrow and delivering them to various locations.'
