Joseph, age 11, Ghana. Photo courtesy of Comic Relief.
My son’s 11. When he’s not at school he loves spending time with his friends and playing football. Joseph is also 11. He lives in Ghana and, because of poverty and hunger, works in a gold mine. Children in the mines are exposed to the dangers of pits collapsing, the long term effects on their health of inhaling rock dust and of carrying heavy loads. I can’t begin to imagine my son doing what Joseph has to do. When I read Joseph’s story here it made me cry.
Crying won’t help, but I’m going to do something that might. I’m taking part in a sponsored relay for Sport Relief this Wednesday in London. The money raised for Sport Relief will go to Comic Relief to support their projects in the UK and overseas.
The relay is part of the Team Honk challenge which is carrying a baton over 3,000 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats by blogger power. The baton is criss-crossing the country as it passes from blogger to blogger with the aim of raising £20,000 for Sport Relief.
We’re using any way we can to transport the baton: walking, cycling, running, pram pushing – I think an elephant is even involved at some point. I’ll be whizzing along with the London team on a scooter (below) which Micro Scooters have donated for the purpose and which will then be auctioned off to add to the fund-raising target (let me know if you’d like to bid for it):
Micro Scooter. Copyright Gretta Schifano
I’ll try not to fall off. The London part of the relay has a Monopoly theme and we’ll be trying to cover as much of the Monopoly board as we can. I’ll be scootering in the unholy combination of an official Sport Relief red onesie, to keep me warm, and a top hat, in a nod to the Monopoly theme. Sorry about that.
Money from Comic Relief has helped give Joseph and other children working in the mines access to schooling. Joseph says that he’d like to be a maths teacher when he grows up. I hope that the support he’s now getting will help that happen.
If you’d like to help children like Joseph then please sponsor us via the London Team Honk Sport Relief giving page or text HONK to 70005 and donate £5. Thank you!
Joseph, age 11, at school. Photo courtesy of Comic Relief.
Great post I cannot imagine any of my children living in these conditions and doing what these children do.
PinkOddy recently posted…Pinkoddy Blog Your Heart Out
From Joseph and everybody else supported by a project funded by Comic Relief. Thank you. Life changing amounts of money have been raised so far.
You should be really proud of all you have done
Mummy Barrow recently posted…Silent Sunday — February 16th
Well thank you to you guys for starting us all off – you’re inspirational.
Such huge thank yous for getting involved and support in – that money raised changes lives and being part of a community rolling up their sleeves and getting involved is a wonderful thing indeed xx
Mammasaurus recently posted…Saturday is ‘don’t cha wish your ya puppy was pug like me’ Caption Day
Thank you to you, Tanya and Penny for starting the whole thing off, the three of you are inspirational and I’m proud to be involved.
Well done Gretta! Hope you haven’t got too wet. Off to sponsor Team Honk London now 🙂
Sarah Ebner recently posted…Where shall we go in the summer (it’s tricky!)?
Thank you Sarah. I’m home now and am slowly thawing out!
Great post! Think of the changes we’ll be able to help make!
Franglaise Mummy recently posted…Please don’t buy me a birthday card
Thank you – I really hope we can help.