3rd Year CSPE students invite Debbie Deegan, from the organisation “To Russia with Love”

On Tuesday, the 8th January, the 3rd year CSPE class organised a guest speaker, Debbie Deegan, founder of To Russia with Love, to come to the school and to talk to students about the wonderful charity.

We were delighted to have such an enthusiastic person such as Debbie to talk to the students. She told us about how she had adopted a Russian child, Zina. After a few years, she travelled to Russia to visit the orphanage that her daughter was from. When she got there, she was horrified by the state it was in. After learning that this was common for Russian orphanages, Debbie decided to set up To Russia with Love in 1998. With great effort, she and her organisation have helped countless orphans, who would have otherwise been abandoned.

Debbie has since been awarded the People of the Year award for her great effort and for the work she has done in Russia. At the moment, To Russia with Love is mainly focussing on education for the orphaned children. Over 70% of the orphans they work with now go to third level education, and it’s all thanks to To Russia with Love.

Debbie’s talk about the work she does gave a great insight to the students and teachers who attended. It is important that we learn about the struggles others face, and that we help them. We were told of some very sad stories, and Debbie has written a book telling the entire story of the charity. The book is available on the To Russia with Love website.

We all wish to thank Debbie for being so kind for coming into Stratford College, and we wish her and all the children she works with the best of luck!

Andrew Enright (3rd Year)

[Scanned image of "To Russia with Love" book cover]