Positive Steps is a charity, set up by a friend of mine Jane Cherry, who I did my nurse training with thirteen years ago.
Jane and Rosy Lloyd (Charities Co-Director) came to our school last term. They talked to the children about Ellen a seven year-old girl living in Malawi who had lost her legs due to illness. Positive Steps have enabled Ellen to have treatment by physically getting her to and from hospital, paying for prosthetic limbs and paying for refits as she has grown. She now walks to school.
Jane and Rosy also talked about Ellen’s life, family and schooling comparing it to that of our children’s at Horsington School. The children were captivated, there were many questions from the children throughout the school ages from ’What cars do they drive in Malawi?’to ‘What presents do they get for their birthdays?’ Jane and Rosyexplained that many children only have £1 a day to live on so some days they didn’t get to eat.
Our Year 6 children decided they would like to raise some money for the charity. They organised a non-uniform day, the selling of cakes and an obstacle course for the children. This was very successful. They also arranged for a bag-packing day at Morrisons where the total raised was over £550 pounds, an amazing amount of money and life changing for many children in Malawi. Jane was astounded by this amount of money and extremely thankful. She will be coming back into school in a couple of months to talk to the children again.
As a governor and parent, I would like to thank our Year 6 pupils for the effort they put into the fundraising. Many remarks were made about their good behaviour in Morrisons; they were very polite, helpful and smart, a credit to our school.
I am very proud and passionate about our school, and at times like this very thankful to be a part of it. A big thank you and well done to our Year 6 pupils and to all of our children.
Jane will be in Malawi for a couple of months over the summer and will report back, to the children and The Villager, how the money that has been raised is being spent.
Sam Nancarrow
Parent Governor