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06 March 2020

At today’s Prep Assembly Mr FitzHerbert and Fr Mark presented Paul and Lisa (Trustees of Change a Child’s Life) with a cheque amounting to £5017.01.

With the funds, Birkenhead School is delighted to be able to sponsor Natalia Muthoni (aged 3) so that she can attend Maria Immaculata School in North Nairobi as a boarding student. Paul and Lisa gave a fantastic presentation about Natalia's life and showed our pupils photographs of Natalia at school.  The pupils were delighted to see the huge influence they have had on her life.
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Prep Headmaster, Mr FitzHerbert stated:
“It has been wonderful to see the response of Prep families to our fundraising for 'Change a Child’s Life' and I am delighted that the funds raised so far mean that we can sponsor Natalia Muthoni through her primary education at Maria Immaculata School in Nairobi. It is amazing to think just how much of a difference this will make to Natalia’s life and we look forward to following her progress over the coming years.”

Previously the School has given Change a Child's Life a huge number of books for the new library they built in North Nairobi. Prep pupils have also donated old school uniforms so that the pupils in Nairobi would have something to wear to school. Our Prep children did not want to just stop there; they wanted to make a significant difference and were very enthusiastic about coming up with creative ways to raise money for such an important cause. Change a Child’s Life presented the idea to Mr FitzHerbert and to Fr Mark that we could potentially sponsor Natalia’s education as they have sponsored Natalia’s brother Maxwell.

Natalia’s family are very poor and live in awful conditions in the slums of Kenya. At the very young age of three, Natalia would have to beg on the streets every day with her mother to try to get some money for food. They do not have the sanitation systems which are a given in our society; wastewater frequently runs down the same streets people walk, which leads to a lot of sickness.
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A well-wisher wanted to help Natalia’s mother's situation and has rented a single room. However, ten other mothers also share it, and there are so many children they could not say how many children also live in that one room.  At least Natalia did not have to sleep on the streets and had some shelter. Natalia’s mother and grandmother try their best to raise and look after the children, however, they are both very sick and often very weak due to the living conditions and lack of food.
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Thankfully, due to the generosity of our pupils, their families and the organisation of Fr Mark and the Change a Child’s Life charity, Natalia is now able to attend school. Natalia is loving learning how to count and learning the sounds of letters. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up and enjoys helping her classmates with their learning. She also loves getting her photograph taken after initially being very shy.
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Maria Immaculata School were able to celebrate their first World Book Day due to the generosity of the books donated by Birkenhead School and having a library. Maria Immaculata School is a wonderful institution, which is reflected by the fact old students return to assist the sisters running the school. Change a Child’s Life hope to use the money raised to build a science lab and a computer suite for the school, to add to their library and playground. Change a Child’s Life believe that these facilities are vital components of any successful school.
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Mr FitzHerbert has visited Maria Immaculata School to see the impact of the money raised by Birkenhead School, and to get to know the school and the sisters who run it. Mr FitzHerbert thoroughly enjoyed his visit and took a great deal from seeing how the money raised has made a difference for the children attending the school.
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Birkenhead School is extremely delighted and proud of the pupils’ enthusiasm to raise money for such a worthy cause. The Pupils are very eager to come up with ideas how to raise money and they are looking forward to hearing more about Natalia’s progress. 
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