WATCH Limerick students fundraising for Kolkata trip to support the Hope Foundation

Lucy Casey and her classmates fundraising for a Kolkata trip to support the Hope Foundation. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Laurel Hill Coláiste transition year student, Lucy Casey, has set a €2,000 goal for a fundraiser to travel to Kolkata, India to support the Hope Foundation

Limerick’s Lucy Casey, a Laurel Hill Coláiste transition year student, is one of 15 classmates raising funds to travel to Kolkata to support the work of the Hope Foundation for what the student describes as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

In March 2026, Lucy and her classmates will travel to Kolkata for a week-long immersion programme with the charity which supports children in the West Bengal city.

The Hope Foundation is a registered charity working with street-connected and slum-dwelling children in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India. The charity works to free children and poor families from lives of pain, abuse, poverty and darkness. Living on the streets, children are exposed to horrendous physical and sexual abuse.

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Those who survive are left to fend for themselves, with no promise of a safe future. They are forced to work from as young as five years of age to earn money for food and so cannot go to school. HOPE works to free them from child labour. HOPE funds and operates 58 projects.

For Lucy, the opportunity to help others is a show of great empathy, the young Liemrick student said, “ I think that it’s an amazing thing to help the people that are less fortunate than I am growing up. It might change their lives even in the smallest way; even if they don’t know I’m doing it, I still know that I’m making a small difference in their life, and I really think that’s an amazing thing to do.”

She added, “ I think it inspired me because growing up, I’ve had everything I wanted from my parents. So knowing that there are children out there that wouldn’t get a lot of things, and don’t have the basic things in life that I would’ve had growing up, and I know that by raising this money and by travelling over there, it might just make them a bit happier and safer where they live.”

The group will travel to the city in March 2026, and Lucy says the students are all feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness, she said, “ We’re going for seven days from the 12th of March to the 19th of March. All the girls are excited, but I think everyone’s just slightly nervous because we know that the street and slum area is not going to be nice to see, and it’s gonna be really upsetting. But I think we’re all willing to take on the challenge of going because we really do want to help these kids.”

The students must raise €2,000 each to contribute to one of the 58 projects carried out by the Hope Foundation, with Lucy saying to the public, “ By donating, it’s a really, really, really helpful thing to do for the children, and I think it is really worth it. If you even gave as much as you could, I’d be so grateful for it.”

For Lucy, the trip represents the chance to support others as well as experience different cultures and ways of living. She told I Love Limerick she knows the experience will be both challeneging and rewarding, saying, “ I’ve never been to a country like India before. The most I’ve ever been to is Spain. So I know this is just going to be really, really different and a really, really cool experience, but also really upsetting and really challenging. But I’m willing to take it on because I really do want to experience it.”

Lucy’s fundraiser is open on iDonate as the young Limerick students prepare for their visit to Kolkata in March.