Help a dream to reality, graduating next year!

Help a dream to reality, graduating next year!

My name is Malcolm, and this is my story.

I was born in The Hague and I am a student at The British School in the Netherlands. In September of this year, I hope to enter my last year toward graduation.

Unfortunately, for the past months I have been unable to go to school due to the school fee.

How did we get here?

My mother, a single parent, fled her country of birth due to conflict and war to reach the Netherlands, where I was born a month later. Due to the trauma she went through during that period while pregnant, my first years of childhood were difficult. I started to speak late and had to go to different schools; after a series of tests and diagnoses, at the age of six (6), I was wrongly sent to enter a school for the deaf and hearing-impaired.

My situation wasn’t and is not different from many migrant, refugee children. Some parents decided to take the road to other countries, where their children could have a chance at a better inclusive education system for children with special needs.

My mother struggled for two years to get me out of the deaf and hearing-impaired school. But because of the reports from the Dutch school system tagged me as a child with impairment conditions, it was difficult for any regular Dutch school to accept to register me.

The British School System was the only school that unbiasedly allowed me, and since then, for nine years, I have gone from not speaking English to following regular education without any special needs, getting supported where needed, but never separated from the rest of my classmates. I have no hearing or speaking impairment; rather, I have learned to be more confident and no longer afraid to be rejected because of being different.

This was also possible because of the savings my mother made over the years. We dream of getting me into the University of my dreams when I graduate, not knowing that it will be used much earlier.

I have never known my father, and I also don’t know what it is to have a dad. However, an adoptive grandparent decided to support my mother in this journey till COVID affected him greatly.

While my mother has managed to start her own company, delays in payments and health-related issues haven’t allowed her to always meet the school fee on time.

In September, I will be entering my last year toward graduating, in Year 13.

Before, I didn't understand what my mother went through. But I recently turned 17 years old. My dream is to help her achieve her dream for me: Graduate from the school that, for the past 9 years, made me feel a sense of “belonging" and confident. Moreover, one day to take care of her.

To be free isn’t a free ride. It comes with a price. And with a world revolving around Artificial Intelligence, we still need a world where humans can strive to their best capacity.

Please assist me in paying my school fee, and plead with the British School to allow me to finish this last milestone toward graduating from high school. Malcolm is not just another student, a name on a class list or a number in the registrar's file of the school. Malcolm is me, asking to be able to go back to school.

Thank you for all the support you can give to my mother and me in this difficult period of our life.

Malcolm Year 12

British School Netherland