Friends, hello!
I've signed up to Charioke - 10 hours of karaoke - yes, I said ten HOURS of karaoke - to raise money for Just For Kids Law.
If you pledge £20, you can choose a song for me to perform. The list of tunes is available on the Lucky Voice song list.
Just for Kids law is a small charity who give advice and assistance to kids in desperate need. Some examples of the work they do follow:
Tracy is 16. She had been on the Child Protection Register for many years and suffered physical abuse at the hands of her elder brother and stepfather. As she got older her relationship with her step father grew so bad that the police were called numerous times. Eventually, in October 2008, her mother threw her out. Her Connexions Worker helped her to make a homelessness application, this was unsuccessful. Tracy then slept rough, or at friends’ houses and sometimes with men who offered her a bed for the night in exchange for sex. She was offered crack cocaine. In December 2008 she was hospitalised for a chest infection, malnutrition and hypothermia. Her mother would not allow her back into the house for a coat. She made another unsuccessful Housing application. In February 2009 she made contact with us and we wrote to the Local Authority threatening to issue an urgent Judicial Review unless the Social Services provided her with supported accommodation under S20 Children Act. They did and within two days she had a place in supported accommodation. She is now attending College and engaging with Connexions.
Jared is seven. He lives with his mother, father, his four year old younger sister and his eight month old younger brother in a tiny one bedroom flat. His mother shares the bedroom with the baby and he sleeps on the living room floor with his father and sister. He has a diagnosis of ADHD and his consultant, school nurse and specialist paediatric nurse have written to the Council advising them that his cramped living conditions are having and adverse impact on his condition. He has nightmares at night because he is afraid of sleeping on the floor and thinks insects will get him. When this happens he wakes the whole family. The family cannot open the windows because they are very large and Jared would jump out of them. Because of this lack of ventilation the flat is smelly. There is damp along both walls and Jared’s mother reports a recent health worker stated it was unfit for them to live in. Despite all of this the family have been living in this tiny flat for seven years. His mother has made numerous applications to the Council to attempt to get re housed in a three bedroom flat she has also written to her MP but nothing has happened. We are working on behalf of Jared and his family to get them re-housed.
Thanks for sponsoring me!
