I've been fundraising since I was 7 years old (just a few pounds here and there) but I would like to tell you about my reason why I have continued on! During my time served in the Royal Navy I was on a visit to Mombassa, Kenya, a commonwealth country, for some R&R. When we make these kind of visits we are sometimes invited to out-lying villages to help refurbish them provide humanitarian aid and mix with the inhabitants and believe it or not have fun playing games with them like football, cricket etc. When we arrived at this particular village we unloaded supplies of paint, food, water, wood and tools and other essentials etc we were immediately made to feel so welcome by the villagers it was unbelievable. This particular village had been suffering the aftermath of draught, so there was no/or very little water the crops had died and so had some of the villagers. It was on a short rest/break I was sat in the shade and I was looking around when I spotted a lady sat in the doorway of her hut with what I thought was a baby wrapped in a blanket, what was left of a blanket. I asked one of the guides that we were with us if I could go across and say hello and if possible have a hold of the baby. The guide went off and came back to say 'yes' the lady had agreed for me to go over and sit with her. When I got to the doorway I discovered what I thought was a baby was in fact a 6 year old girl, who was unwell, the lady handed the girl over to me... In my hands I was literally and gently cuddling a bag of bones, the girl was on the verge of dying because she hadn't eaten for several days and had only a few sips of water. I tried hard to fight back the tears because the little girl was looking up at me and smiling, I sat for a further 10 minutes with her in my arms and her mother sat with us, she looked at me but said nothing, I handed the little girl back to her and as I stood up to go and carry on with work the mother smiled and said "Thank you". After a long day, it was time to leave and return to the ship, I knew deep down that it wouldn't be long before the inevitable would happen and just as we were about the leave Mombassa I got news that the little girl I was holding a few days earlier, died that morning. I also learned that although we couldn't do anything to save her, things could have been so much different if supplies of food and water had arrived at the village a week or so earlier. The memory of holding that young girl will remain with me ALWAYS and this is one reason why my support crew and I have supported Save the Children for over four years, Save the Children have made a huge difference to children's lives both abroad and here in the UK because they 'WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO HELP CHILDREN IN CRISIS' please take a few moments to view the following links and if you can, please visit the fundraising page
https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/ReachForTheSky to donate and if you can spare just £1 or whatever you can afford to help 'MAKE A DIFFERENCE’ that would be great. THANK YOU!
http://storycentral.savethechildren.org.uk/…
http://storycentral.savethechildren.org.uk/…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMt--qQ0KV8
http://www.familiesandschoolstogether.com/resources
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