Foundation Learning students work with The Edward Starr Trust
The Foundation Learning students this year have worked with The Edward Starr Trust http://www.starrtrust.com/ on their CHOCS (Children Helping Other Children Smile) programme to raise funds for orphaned and less fortunate students in Tanzania, enabling them to attend school.
The CHOCS programme is aimed predominantly at schools, but having heard about our courses and learner group, Edward Starr were keen to work alongside Varndean.
Having attended team building and confidence workshops run by the trust at the Crew Club, students were offered the opportunity to choose a charity that they would like to work with and then developed ideas to help raise funds.
Given our students background, it was fantastic to see that they really took ownership of this and were able to raise £360 for the charity Shika http://www.shika.org.uk/ which goes a long way to helping children in Tanzania access education.
This was all done in the space of 3 months through car boot sales, youth discos, cake sales and various raffles, all undertaken voluntarily within the students own time on the whole.
To round this off, some of our students attended an event at the Brighton Theatre Royal on Tuesday 10th July to present their work as well as their cheque to a representative from Shika.
To stand up in front of an audience of 60+ students, teachers, chair people, business members and Claire Martin OBE would be nerve racking at the best of times, let alone having never had to present to such a big group. A truly astonishing achievement!!!