Worksheet (Week 11) SVIP

1. Hannah Taylor

When five-year-old Canadian Hannah Taylor saw a homeless man eating out of a rubbish bin, she was shocked and saddened. As a young child from a loving and comfortable home, she was unaware that homelessness existed. She never forgot the image of that man and so, a few years later, Hannah founded The Ladybug Foundation, a charity for the homeless. She chose the ladybug because the insect represents good luck, which is something she believes the homeless need. She began by painting empty baby-food jars like ladybugs and asking businesses in her town to put small change in them. By the age of ten, she had raised more than half a million dollars.

Now a young adult, Hannah has spoken out for the homeless across Canada to hundreds of schools and organisations. Through these and other efforts, over two million dollars has been raised to provide not only shelter, but food – two basic human rights – for the homeless.

2. Martha Paynen

Mary's Meals is an extraordinary charity that has introduced school meal programmes for hungry children in countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and South America. There, many children do not attend school. To encourage them to get an education, the charity provides free healthy daily meals at school. Education is important because it can lift them out of poverty by helping them to get good jobs, which benefits the whole community.

Nine-year-old Martha Paynen from the UK had a blog about her own school dinners and whether they were healthy or not. Some people pointed out on her blog that she was fortunate to get a meal of any kind at school when so many children were starving. Realising the truth of this, Martha got involved by raising money for Mary's Meals and encouraged her blog readers to donate. She has raised over 130,000 pounds for the charity, visited Mary's Meals in Malawi and herself became the subject of a BBC documentary.