I am lucky enough to have been selected to go to Sparrow School in South Africa for 10 days of my October half term with 7 other girls from my school. We are travelling to Johannesburg on the 20th October and are arriving at Sparrow School soon after. 

Sparrow School provides both a remedial and specialised education to children between the age of 7 and 13. Many of these children are unable to learn in mainstream education due to their learning difficulties, yet Sparrow School helps teach these children life skills as well as literacy and numeracy in hope that they can return to mainstream education at the age of 14. The school has a strong academic programme but this is supplemented by life skills such as sewing, cookery and sport. Many of the children come from families devastated by HIV/AIDS or have suffered from abuse, exploitation or homelessness and many are orphans who have had to fend for themselves from a very young age. However, Sparrow School provides the help to these children that they so desperately need to break out of the cycle of poverty. 

During our time at Sparrow School we aim to help with academic lessons, sports, art, music and a lot more which we hope will be fun for the children. Therefore we are going to be taking as many resources out as possible such as pens, paints, tye-dye, crayons and some other arts and crafts materials. We are also taking part in a big project to help the school. This is to create a shade garden for the children. We are planning to buy benches and ornaments when we are there, as well as materials to create a flower bed. We hope this project will provide a fun and cool place for the children to relax in.

I am hoping to raise at least £200 to take out to South Africa and donate to the school as it runs fully on donations. I will also use some of the money to pay for resources and materials for the children to enjoy. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

Annabel Beale