VOLUNTEERS are preparing for their latest aid mission to help needy children and their families in Romania.

Seven members of the Slaithwaite-based Oak Tree Foundation will fly out on Saturday, May 19.

As part of their ‘Drop in the Ocean’ aid trip they will meet up with an articulated lorry packed with donations for the rural villages of Danes and Gageni.

The lorry will set off on Tuesday for the over land journey.

Volunteers will link up with the truck and use vans hired in Romania to deliver aid.

Co-ordinator Roy Bowden, of Huddersfield, said: “Many local church groups, women’s institutes and individuals signed up to the charity’s ‘Adopt a Family’ project where they were given details of families desperately in need of help.

“The groups sourced and packed basic clothing for each family which is then delivered by the volunteers.

“Many of these families are poor because farm labouring jobs have been lost to mechanisation.”

The team will also be delivering much needed educational supplies to the two village schools and to two groups helping disabled children.

Mobility aids and equipment will also go to an old people’s hospital in the village of Bacoi.

The team will be in Romania for just nine days but will deliver more than 4,000kg of aid during their stay.

Most of the aid has been donated by people in Huddersfield and Halifax.

Toothpaste and toothbrushes, donated by Sainsbury’s, will be given to children at the two schools as part of the charity’s ‘Smile’ project.

All the volunteers are paying for their own flights, food and accommodation.

During the trip, Mr Bowden will be sending back daily bulletins which can be followed at www.theoaktreefoundation.org.

The Oak Tree Foundation are a group of volunteers from all walks of life and of ages mainly from the Kirklees and Calderdale areas of West Yorkshire.

The group has supporters in West Yorkshire and from as far afield as Manchester and York. The charity has been running aid missions to Romania since 1990.