Drayton Manor High School students raise money for children in India and Malawi

A group of school students are fundraising to educate underprivileged children in India and Malawi.

The four teenagers from Drayton Manor High School are raising money for The Wings of Hope Achievement Award (WOHAA); a charity organisation working to educate children who do not have access to schools.

Akram Soliman 17, Ann Gakou 16, Alice El-Maawiy 16 and Amran Ahmed 16 who call themselves the ‘A Team’ all wanted to make sure other children had the opportunities they have.

WOHAA encourages youngsters in school year groups nine-13 to go into groups of up to six people and raise as much money as they can in various different ways.

This allows them to build on various skills like managing money, working together and thinking creatively in order to raise as much money as possible.

The winning group then go to Malawi to see for themselves how their hard work has changed the lives of underprivileged kids.

The ‘A team’ plan to hold a masquerade ball, a world food day and a charity run in their local area to raise as much money as possible.

Amran Ahmed said: “We were inspired to do WOHAA because we believe that education is very important and that with education you can do anything and education is without a doubt a key to success. The wings of hope charity allows  underprivileged kids  to get their education and allows them to have the opportunity that we have had, and enables them to enrich their lives.”

Ann Gakou said: “Philanthropy is not the sole reason we joined WOHAA, we are also very competitive and would love the idea of winning and being able to go to India and see what our money has done to help.”

Alice El-Maawiy said: “We are all very entrepreneurial and loved the idea of organising events and brainstorming of different ways in which we could raise money for the wings of hope charity.”

Akram Soliman said: “All four of us are incredibly motivated students and we all thought with hard work and dedication we could make a difference in a child’s life, as Nelson Mandela said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”