Mount Kelly pupil Alfie Stirling and his parents Sara and William travelled to Vietnam over half term during which time they delivered former Mount House and Kelly College uniform and school equipment donated by MK parents and the School Shop in recent months. Below is a report from Mrs Stirling:
"Thank you all for donating your children's old uniform and school equipment over the last six months. Alfie, my husband and I travelled to Vietnam over the October half term and took the first load of six huge suitcases with the help of free baggage offered by Vietnam airlines.
The old uniform was given to the Blue Dragon Foundation: a charity that works with street children in Hanoi. This load included; 30 pairs shorts, 30 tracksuit bottoms, 40 hoodies, 50 shirts, 50 t-shirts, 20 coats, 15 caps and 50 pairs socks. On our return we received an email from Blue Dragon in which they said;
'I am writing to say thank you for visiting us and for bringing gifts for Blue Dragon kids. I cannot say how happy they were when they tried on the clothes and how much we all appreciate your kindness'.
We then travelled for two days into the mountains in the far north to visit the little girl who we sponsor through Plan. We were invited to visit her primary school where the children sang to us and Alfie joined in with some games. We gave them a suitcase full of all the pens, pencils, rubbers, felt tips and colouring pencils that you all donated as well as 100 plain text books from the school shop and 100 pencils donated by Pens and Moor in Tavistock Market. The Head Teacher was so incredibly grateful as they lack this basic equipment and the children at this school come from families who are too poor to provide it.
Although it was a wonderful day visiting our sponsored child's family and school, we left feeling that we had to do more. The poverty in this area is shocking and the children lack basic clothing, most do not have shoes or a coat, and winter is coming. I couldn't come home to my life of luxury and forget about them. So I am now in the process of packing a shipment of 6 large boxes of old uniform, coats, hats, shoes, wellies and some basic equipment that I am buying new such as toothbrushes, wind up torches, gloves, underwear and some toys (24 skipping ropes and 24 sets of dominoes so far!).
I have set up a Just Giving page to raise the money to pay for the shipping to the Plan office in Hanoi and then the transport from there to the school in Ha Giang province. If you would like to donate anything to help with this please go to: https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Vietnam
This week Alfie and I have given a talk and slide show of photos of our trip to Pre Prep on Monday and Prep on Tuesday and the College on Friday.
The best way to give long term help to this community and others around the world is to sponsor a child. We were very impressed by the work Plan are doing and the way their organisation is run. We have recently sponsored a second child through Plan, she lives in Nepal. If you would like to learn more about Plan's work or sponsor a child go to www.plan-uk.org
Thank you all for your support."
Sara Stirling
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