Helen O'Rourke, who left Bolton School in the summer of 2006, returned to the Girls' Division to talk about her work with the charity Street Kids’ Community Villages (SKCV), which looks after Indian street children in the southern city of Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Helen’s talk, part of the Easter Celebration at the School, recounted how she had first encountered the SKCV charity in December 2005 when 20 Sixth Form girls and 4 members of staff visited the projects in Vijayawada.
The visit had an enormous effect on her and, upon her return, Helen spent a lot of time raising money and talking others into raising money for the charity. Westhoughton Folk Club raised £800 through concerts and other activities by its members. Another £500 was raised by St Katherine’s Church, Blackrod and Helen and a teacher, Ms Noot, raised £550 from a craft stall at Bolton School’s May Serenade concert.
However, raising money was not enough and Helen felt she had to revisit India to see if she could offer further hands-on help. Consequently, Helen spent 5 weeks with the SKCV project during her Christmas vacation from Cambridge University.
Most of her time was spent helping out in the charity’s school for boys aged 4-18 years. She also assisted the School’s Principal in writing up their curriculum in English. Helen enjoyed playing football, cricket and board games with the boys and commented: "“Just spending time with the children, talking to them and playing games with them is so important, as it lets them know that they are cared for and have support around them, which is often what was missing from their lives before they came to SKCV.”
“My visit to SKCV once again proved a wonderful experience and my longer stay in Vijayawada made it even harder to leave the children I had been working with and grown so close to, especially the small boys from my primary classes. In between my university studies I hope to find the time to do some more fundraising for the charity.”
A full report on Helen's visit and an outline of SKCV's work can be downloaded below.
The School's 2007 May Serenade raised a further £689.10 for the charity.
If you would like to learn more about SKCV, please click here.