A GROUP from the Redditch YMCA in Church Hill have returned from six days volunteer work in Bulgaria.

During their stay, they used experience and knowledge in helping to develop volunteer staff in a hospital in Plovdiv.

The project was run in conjunction with Y Care International, and led by Tony Randall, YMCA's resident support worker, and Wendy Green from Y Care International.

Other team members who ran training courses for the local volunteers were Nicola Hogg, Steve Stockton and Sarah Wyatt, all YMCA residents from the town.

The Polvdiv YMCA has been developing a unit within the main hospital to provide specialised care and support for handicapped and disadvantaged young people.

The children's illnesses ranged from diabetes to leukaemia and even AIDS.

Local people felt that they lacked sufficient expertise to provide a really first-class service.

And the first thing that struck the group on entering the hospital was the intense poverty.

Mr Randall said: "I will never be able to criticise the NHS for poor conditions again after seeing the inside of the major hospital.

"It looked more like a Prisoner -of-War camp than a place to heal the sick."

The course was delivered to about 18 staff from the area and was designed to develop such things as behaviour and anger management and assertiveness.

The Redditch staff had to be particularly inventive and adept in their delivery because of the limited command of English their students had.

Much of their work had to carried out through an interpreter.

A spokesman for the YMCA said the trip was a huge learning event.

He said: "Not only did we pass on some much needed skills and expertise but we in turn learned much about the poverty and poor living and working conditions of our colleagues."

One family they met had been saving two years for a wardrobe.

The trip was so successful, the team have been invited to return next year to deliver even more programmes.