Street Child

January 2022

Street Child is a UK charity, established in 2008, that aims to create educational opportunities for some of the most vulnerable children in Africa and Asia. The charity believes that every child deserves the right to safety and to be empowered through education. They offer support from helping to build and refurbish schools as well as aiding families to set up small businesses so mothers can afford to send their children to school.

"In January 2018, I went to Sierra Leone and saw the amazing work Street Child does there. Soon after returning, we appointed Street Child as our charitable partner."

Annie Wainwright, Trustee of the Boodles Charitable Trust

Annie and the Boodles family are delighted that Boodles partnership with Street Child is set to continue for a 5th year, and there are a lot more fundraising plans afoot from everyone at Boodles.

This year we have raised over £100,000 for Street Child through a combination of donations from the Boodles charitable trust, and fundraising efforts by our staff. Staff took part in a whole host of different challenges, including marathons and fun runs, selling ice creams outside the shops during the hot summer months, and selling our ever popular charity Christmas crackers. And every penny raised has gone directly to support Street Child in their work in Sierra Leone, and to their emergency work to aid the humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine. In 2023 we are again committed to helping Street Child in their valuable work in ensuring every child in Sierra Leone has access to an education.

Annie Wainwright, trustee of the Boodles Charitable Trust, explains what they do:

‘Street Child works with local people to help families start their own micro-businesses by selling things such as charcoal, firewood, home grown vegetables or sweets. By helping the mothers to save their small weekly profits, Street Child can make the difference between a child being forced into labour and ending up on the streets, or having a chance to create a better life by going to school. In January 2018, I went to Sierra Leone and saw the amazing work Street Child does there. Soon after returning, we appointed Street Child as our charitable partner – and the Boodles family have been fundraising for them ever since.

We are seeing real benefits too - there is now a Boodles Community School in the diamond producing area of eastern Sierra Leone, where 163 students are receiving an education, and 5 local people have been trained as teachers. Construction on a second classroom will start in November, and the local community have made all the bricks needed. Street Child have helped provide other materials such as zinc roofing and concrete that the community cannot easily access themselves. And over the next five years, Street Child will be building and renovating a thousand schools across Sierra Leone, giving 100,000 children life-changing opportunities.’

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