Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Happy Child is a charity close to our hearts as it was founded by a dear friend 16 years ago.  This amazing charity provides life-changing opportunities to street children and those children identified as ‘at risk’.  These are some of the most traumatised and emotionally disturbed children imaginable.  Happy Child, with professional psychologists, social workers and carers, provides holistic services to offer these children the chance for a better future. To date they have rescued over 8,000 children.

We recently visited the work and were so impacted by what we saw: the heartbreaking reality of poverty and children on the streets and hope in the work of Happy Child, providing good, quality care. The children are left to fend for themselves in the streets and are vulnerable to drugs, gangs, exploitation, abuse and violence. Their plight is made worse by the burgeoning child sex tourism trade in Brazil - fuelled by the Internet and poverty. (Parents even send their girls out into the streets to sell their bodies simply for a plate of food!) We were shocked to learn that girls as young as 10 were prostitutes!

Our maternal instincts kicked in - as mums, we cannot imagine what life must be like under these circumstances as the child or the parent, but we are now determined to raise £15,000 for Happy Child so that they can rescue the young girls on the streets in Recife.  This will go towards opening a house especially equipped and staffed to deal with the issues relating to these girls. 

We are holding a Ball on 24 September at the Woodlands Hotel.  It will be a great fun evening, with a 3 course dinner, disco and a fantastic auction and raffle. Let us know if you would like to reserve tables or, if you can’t make it, please help us to help them by donating or bidding for auction prizes due to be revealed soon.  Together we can achieve much more.    Thank you.  Obrigado!

So please dig deep and donate now, it's really easy.