As some of you may already know, Elsie is a keen fund raiser for 'the poorly children' and so far has managed to raise just under £3000 through her own cake sale, sponsored swim and pizza parties. Last year, she ran Brighton’s amazing 5k colour run raising an outstanding amount of £1100 which she hand delivered to the children when we visited the school, along with cases of much needed books, games and stationery donated by the University of Brighton, her school and many of her friends and family. She even taught the children a bit of phonics and some fun playground games too! This year‘s challenge is another run but this time it involves obstacles and bubbles! Lots and lots of bubbles!

SOID School in Siem Reap, Cambodia is a small village school that provides a free education to 180 children aged between 5 and 15. The children are too poor to go to a government school as they have to pay a fee to get into the classroom, so SOID provides them with an opportunity to get an education. All families are even given free rice and health checks as an incentive for parents to send their children to school rather than out to work.

So far, the fund raising has enabled classrooms to be painted with educational resources that we take for granted, books have been bought (although shipping is a real problem) and my friend has also trained the teachers there in order to implement a phonics programme.

Our visit was something else; exciting yet humbling and so very heart warming. We already knew how much these kids love learning and going to school but to see them in action and have the privilege of teaching these young learners was just amazing. These children have and expect nothing but are always smiling and full of fun. We plan to help however we can but we need your help too!