Kate and Ian's Maues Charity Cultural Exchange

Kate and Ian Cole have been asked to join a fantastic volunteer trip to Maues in Brazil to help out at the Living Word school. Kate is the beloved Play Manager for Mangotsfield Out of School Club which serves Mangotsfield CofE Primary School, Emersons Green Primary School and Lyde Green Primary School in North Bristol.  Ian has a background in Environmental Health. Both are willing to give up two weeks of their time to make an epic journey (involving a nine hour boat trip up the Amazon with only a hammock to sleep in!)  and would love if the local community could come together to help this happen. The trip is fully endorsed by the MOOSC committee who would be grateful if parents could spare a few pounds to help Kate out by way of thanks for all of the great work she's done for the club over the years. If we fail to make the £3,000 target, the monies raised will be used to send supplies to the school in lieu of Kate and Ian travelling out there.   The target needs to be met by the end of January 2019. The Living Word school has 120 pupils who come from varied backgrounds with the majority coming from broken homes, raised by mum, aunt or grannies. Many of the children live below the poverty line. A typical home can be made out of wooden planks, corrugated roofing and concrete or mud floors, 3x6m, with 8-12 people living together! Toilets are often 'long drops' (pit latrines) out the back. At the school the children are feed a health lunch, which for some will be the only meal of the day. The 120 children are 4-6year old. They receive food, uniform, school materials.... everything they need is provided. There is also another school with 40 pupils in a very poor district. In this district few police enter unless heavily armed, also there is lots of violence, drugs etc etc. Kate and Ian will be joined by eight other volunteers who will be involved in various building projects and also spend time helping the children in the two schools to make improvements to their daily lives. Kate will also use the opportunity to make links between the schools in Brazil and the out of school clubs back in the UK, hopefully allowing the children to share letters, stories, emails to help them learn about other cultures.