Every year, Community Highlight brings together the children across our four village schools, along with their families, guardians, teachers and the wider community, for our School Closing Day.

It is an opportunity for learners to showcase everything they have learned throughout the year through songs, performances and activities, while celebrating their progress together as a community. For many families, it is the first chance to see just how much their children have grown in confidence, knowledge and ability over the school year.

This year, we also want to use the gathering to host a community awareness event. Over the past year, we have become increasingly concerned by the number of cases involving child sexual abuse, early marriage, teenage pregnancy and school dropouts affecting young people in our community. We are also seeing growing issues around alcohol and drug use among young people, while misinformation around public health continues to circulate.

Bringing the community together gives us a valuable opportunity to have open conversations about these issues. Through drama, music, football, talks from local professionals and interactive activities, we want to encourage families, young people and community leaders to discuss how children can be better protected, supported to stay in school, and given the opportunity to build healthy futures.

To make the best use of our resources, we have decided to combine the School Closing Day and the Community Awareness Event into one day. The celebration will take place in the morning, followed by the awareness activities in the afternoon, allowing us to reach hundreds of children, parents and community members in a single event.

We are aiming to raise £350 to make the day possible. The funding will cover the practical costs of bringing the community together, including transport, venue and sound equipment, refreshments and the materials needed to deliver the awareness activities.

By supporting this fundraiser, you'll be helping us celebrate children's achievements while creating an opportunity for our community to come together, learn from one another, and tackle some of the challenges affecting children and young people in Domasi.

Zikomo kwambiri,

Thocco, Evie, Emma and the team