Abu Dhabi: Lisa Wall and Janine Loftus from Abu Dhabi said meeting slum children at the Choice to Change (C2C) elementary school in Bangladesh was nothing short of a life-changing experience.
Wall and Loftus are part of the Al Yasmina School’s parent group called ‘Friends of Yasmina’ (FOY), which does a lot of community events with proceeds from the events donated to charity.
“It was an eye-opener to spend time with the children and watching their excitement was the best feeling in the world,” said Janine Loftus, chair of FOY.
Dh40,000
FOY managed to collect Dh40,000 in a festive fair at the school involving the community.
They praised the work being done by Choice to Change co-founders Eva Kernova and Bangadesh’s Sunil Baroi. “We knew Eva. She is amazing and has so much knowledge, drive and enthusiasm. She was an air hostess, but she quit to do this full time. She and Sunil have been doing a wonderful job and when we got to know about it, we decided to travel and see for ourselves how they are changing lives.
“We had an amazing experience. We were wondering how the kids would react, but they were really humble and happy to see us. They wanted to take photos and hold our hands and walk with us,” said Lisa, treasurer of FOY.
They also went with Eva who visits each house in the slums trying to convince parents to send their children to school. “The biggest challenge they face is losing children to child labour. Most kids are usually sent for trash collection,” said Lisa.
The funds raised and donations will help the foundation build classrooms and also sponsor kids in their school activities. “Since we know funds are reaching the right place and being used for uplifting kids’s lives, we would be more than willing to help this foundation in the future as well,” added Janine.
She said they were also working at getting a few events registered in Abu Dhabi to help raise funds and help the foundation. “Next step for us is to find out ways to help them. I’m not sure we can go back but we are at least assured the money is going into the right hands. It’s all very transparent,” she said.
On their return, the kids of the Al Yasmina School were involved in the PenPals programme. “The aim of this programme is to give children an opportunity to communicate with kids in Dhaka and get to know each other,” Lisa said.
The next event for FOY, which was started three years ago, is the table top sale at the Yasmina School Atrium on May 31 where people from the community are encouraged to bring clothing, household items, toys and the funds raised will again be used for a similar purpose.
“We would love to have as many people coming and supporting this event,” said Janine.
