WHEN 18 pupils from a Romsey school went to Romania to help orphaned and abandoned children, they hardly dreamt they would find the experience so rewarding.

Eight boys and ten girls from Mountbatten School spent three weeks looking after 160 Romanian youngsters, many of whom are severely disabled, but all of whom have been affected by a lack of care and love.

Now the school has raised enough money to start building a foster home for some of the children, and the students are going back next year to help with the project, which needs a further £7,000 to complete.

Word has spread among Hampshire's schools about the work Mountbatten is doing in Onesti, 200 miles north-east of Bucharest, and groups from St Anne's School and Regent's Park School in Southampton are also travelling out to help next year.

Mountbatten School has launched a new project to build a £40,000 residential centre for children and the elderly near the foster home, which is just outside Onesti.

Project co-ordinator and design and technology teacher Colin Jones said: "We're trying to help Romania to achieve some degree of improvement for the 190,000 young institutionalised Romanians."

Five former Mountbatten students who went to Romania spoke to present pupils in order to recruit a group from Year 11 to help out next year.