Students in Bolney raise money for disadvantaged South African children

Farney Close School supported the Friends of Alexandra, a charity working with children and families in one of the poorest townships near Johannesburg, by selling homemade sweets, crafts and herb planters as well as plants grown from seed.

Angie Bainbridge, deputy head at Farney Close, said: “The kids split into four groups and worked out business plan.

“They worked out how much they will make, how many they will sell and their profits and losses.

“They love it, the day is a hive of activity for vulnerable people from different backgrounds to work for a really worthwhile cause.

“We raised in the region of a couple hundred pounds.”

Farney Close is a specialist boarding school for children with emotional and behavioural disorders.

After the event one pupil said: “We found out that our money will buy much more in South Africa and we hope that it will make a real difference.”

The challenges on Enterprise Day were to work as part of a team, explain and discuss the fund raising project to visitors and persuade them to spend money.

This is Farney Close’s fourth fund raiser this year.

“We are hoping to raise around £500 over the year to send to the nursery school,” the deputy head added.

She gave a presentation to students to motivate the day.

It explained that there are 400,000 people living in the one square mile in the township, and 30% of the people live with no electricity, running water or sewage.

It said there are 6,000 wood and tin shack homes in which 600 have a child aged 14, 15 or 16 heading the household.

Friends of Alexandra aims to help as many young children as possible stay off the streets and to give them some form of basic education in the year before they go to school.

The nursery’s classroom is an old garage which has been converted into a kitchen and a play/sleep area.

Many students are orphans or from families with no income, and the children are fed one balanced meal a day.

The deputy concluded her presentation: “The school intends to send any money raised during Children in Need, Red Nose Day, Enterprise day and a nonuniform day to South Africa to help these lovely children who have nothing.

“It is hoped that our help can secure a teacher for part of the year and maybe provide something towards the one hot meal these children get every day. In order to keep this crèche running help from people like ourselves is essential, there is no government funding for projects like these, the only money that comes in is from people that care, like us.”