By Rachel Winter | Volunteers Coordinator
Thanks to your generosity during GlobalGiving's Little by Little match-funding campaign, we have raised over a quarter of the money needed to upgrade The Chosen Few Tailoring Workshop at Sky Is the Limit Children's Centre! This money has enabled the manager, Connie-Rose, and her team to purchase 2 new sewing machines and 5 rolls of the material needed in order for them to fulfil bulk orders for the uniforms that the workshop produces.
The beauty of The Chosen Few Tailoring Workshop is that as well as providing jobs and skills training for local people and graduates of Sky Is the Limit, as a social enterprise, it also feeds all its profits back into Sky Is The Limit.
Connie-Rose knows only too well how vital this financial and skills-training support can be, after being taken in by the founder of Sky Is The Limit when she was orphaned at the age of 4. Being able to expand the workshop will allow her to grow the business and help Sky Is The Limit to buy vital supplies to provide school meals for the 300 pupils that attend its school.
Sky's children come from families severely affected by poverty and disease, including HIV/AIDS. They cannot attend state schools because their families or guardians are unable to afford the costs of the school uniforms, pencils and paper that they are expected to supply themselves. Many come to school without any breakfast and the nutritious school meal that Sky Is The Limit provides every day has not only boosted attendance levels but also led to a dramatic improvement in the pupils' ability to concentrate in class and a marked reduction in signs of malnutrition.
Currently it costs £25 to feed one child for a year and it is a constant battle to keep the progamme running, due to recent hikes in the cost of basic staples. The expansion of The Chosen Few Tailoring School will help enormously by generating greater profits to cover the immediate need and buy the seeds and equipment needed to grow more of their own food in future. Thank you for supporting this worthy cause! We leave you with the words of 12-year-old Debra about what this daily school meal means to her:
School meals, school meals,
You have changed my life at school,
Am happier than I was before
Oh, I love you school meals!
I was just 35kg before I ate you but now am 40kgs!
Oh, you are wonderful school meals.
School meals, school meals,
What a wonderful idea you are!
You made great changes in the lives of children at Sky
Most of us have become energetic, fat and tall
In academics, we’re far ahead!
Oh school meals, school meals,
Long live school meals, long live Sky!
God bless you school meals.
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