Generous members of Burnham-On-Sea’s Rotary Club and Inner Wheel this week handed over £1,300 to a group of visiting Kenyan schoolchildren who are in the area hoping to raise enough money to build a new orphanage.
Organiser Sue Stevens is pictured receiving a cheque from Val Shelland (Inner Wheel) and Mike Young (Rotary) with some of the young dancers in the background at Brean Leisure Park. The money was raised at a special fundraising event at the Battleborough Grange in Brent Knoll.
The 30-strong group of young singers has been performing in front of large audiences across Burnham-On-Sea, Highbridge and Berrow during recent weeks, visiting schools, churches and community centres.
Under the SCA Children’s Appeal, the choir has performed more than 20 times and raised thousands of pounds. Its last performance was at Southleigh Kindergarten on Tuesday (October 24th).
The Samson Chivatsi African Children’s Appeal was established in 1998 to give the poorest children in Kenya access to a good education.
Since then the organisation, which was named after the first child that Maureen and Ian sponsored, built the primary school in the village of Utange. This school and a rented nursery school now have more than 600 children, all of who are sponsored by people in the UK and Europe.
Sue Stevens, the Southern Representative for the charity, is based in Burnham. The group hopes to raise enough money to build an orphanage near to their primary school in Utange, near Mombasa.
Burnham’s Mayor, Eric Gill, told Burnham-On-Sea.com earlier this month: “I hope they enjoy their time here as much as the pleasure they have given us with their wonderful performances. Burnham is very happy to welcome and help them.”
RELATED LINKS:
Burnham-On-Sea welcomes visiting group of Kenyan schoolchildren
Kenyan schoolchildren to perform at Burnham-On-Sea garden centre
Singing Children of Africa [External Website]
Photos courtesy of Mike Lang
