ALRESFORD ROTARY SUPPORTS THE EMILY COLLINS SCHOOL
…vulnerable children will be able to sleep and eat there too.
The school is central to providing safety
as well as an education.
It aims to provide a safe environment, an education, food, love, support, play, medical treatment and more for vulnerable children and babies suffering extreme poverty, children dumped and abandoned, but above all it aims to give children the opportunity to escape poverty and give them hope for a future, hope for a better life…
The dark days…
In December 2007 Emily was a 16 year pupil at Bournemouth School for Girls when she was diagnosed with bone cancer and started an eight month programme of chemotherapy. intravenously into her heart. In February, the following year she underwent surgery to replace her left knee and part of her femur. In August she completed her chemotherapy but the powerful drugs had damaged her heart and she suffered a stroke and almost died. Another extensive period of hospitalisation followed and she was discharged with a severely damaged heart function.
Emily’s heart was slowly getting weaker and on two or three occasions she was warned by her consultant that she could possibly only have 3 more months to live. Undaunted and undeterred she continued to travel but eventually her heart could not keep up with the demands of her young body and she died just after her 26th birthday in Ecuador in August 2017. Her passing broke many hearts, including her friends and the children in Rukungiri, Uganda and our family gave the money raised at her funeral to Martin to enable him to buy land and animals to provide food and opportunities for the children.
Where do we go from here?
Our Father’s House Ministries continues to save more children but their needs have grown too. Especially as it is now building a kindergarten/Elementary School to rescue even more children from the streets. In memory of Emily’s commitment and efforts OFHM decided to call it The Emily Collins School. It will need at least another £250k to finish building the school now that the ground floor is built and the school has opened.
We are determined to help Martin carry on the vision that Martin and Emily first discussed, so enthusiastically – to take orphaned and unprotected children off the streets and give them a chance in life…
Stephen Collins, Emily’s father, took a series of beautiful photographs of the Alresford Fireworks last November and informed Rotary that he would donate his fee to the Emily Collins school in Uganda.
Stephen returned to Alresford to present a PowerPoint presentation to Rotary members about the Emily Collins school charity in memory of his daughter.
It was afterwards decided by Alresford Rotary to support the school extension with a donation using money raised during the Guy Fawkes Fireworks.
Rotary’s donation contributed to the purchase of lots of lovely building materials to start making the supporting ironwork, shuttering for the concrete base and concrete itself.
We received the following pictures of the delivery of materials on the 14th December at the school.
Stephen Collins is a photographer based in the UK. He is known for his wildlife photography and has been passionate about it for over a decade.
His work has been featured on his website and he has also contributed to a charitable cause by donating all proceeds from his photography to build ‘The Emily Collins School’ in Uganda. The school was named in memory of his daughter Emily Collins, who passed away in 2017 due to bone cancer.
