I was worried the school would be sad but the kids were singing and dancing
FLEUR EAST ON THE CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY APPEAL
X FACTOR star Fleur East beams amongst a throng of happy schoolchildren during a visit to Kenya to see how wearing a silly sweater on Christmas Jumper Day changes lives.
The visit to Nameyana School, which has 500 pupils, but just two classrooms and five teachers, was the highlight of Fleur’s trip with Save The Children, which is behind Christmas Jumper Day tomorrow.
Fleur, 25, says: “I was worried about the school being very sad. But it was actually my happiest experience.
“When I arrived all the kids were singing and dancing. What struck me was that they were the happiest children and they had so little.
“I think that’s because Save The Children funded the school and it exists to give some hope for their future as a lot of the families are so poor that kids don’t go to school, they help on the farm and make money.”
Fleur, runner-up to Ben Haenow on X Factor in 2014, visited the remote Turkana district of Kenya earlier this year to find out why we should follow celebrities such as Myleene Klass, Kate Garraway, Jon Snow, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Anna Friel, and join in the Christmas jumper fun.
Fleur says the people she met saw Save The Children charity as “a symbol of hope”.
And she was left humbled by the smiling, happy children she met.
She says: “It has made me completely re-evaluate my life. We take so much for granted, like our healthcare and education. I’m so glad I got to see how other people live first hand.
“You see a real struggle and it strikes a chord with you.”
Around one in five Kenyan children die before the age of five because of malnutrition. And visiting the Lod war County Hospital, Fleur shared a special moment with one 11-month-old boy who was suffering from malnutrition, pneumonia, tuberculosis and malaria.
She says: “The baby was severely malnourished. He was so ill, very poorly. I’d never seen a child that thin before.
“His mother had left the rest of her family back in the village so she could get him treated in the hospital.
“When I sat down to talk to them, the baby actually found the energy to reach
out and touch my hand. We just stayed like that for about five minutes. It was incredible.” As well as treating malnutrition In the hospital, Save The Children visits children in villages. Fleur says: “I spent a full day travelling around to different villages measuring children’s arms for malnutrition, checking their height and weight. I got actively involved.” London- born Fleur, whose m o ther’s family come from Ghana, also heard heartbreaking stories of young girls being sold into marriages, something the Nameyana School tries to stop
Fleur says: “A lot of the girls are married off really young and, in return, the parents are given a dowry.”
She met a 16-year-old girl called Susan who narrowly avoided an arranged marriage to an older man. Fleur says: “Susan’s own mum wanted her to go ahead with the marriage. But she refused and said she really wanted an education. “Susan got the chief of the village to speak to her mum and convince her she was doing really well and should stay in school. Now she is a prefect and encouraging other girls that they should get an education. “What Susan did was really brave. “She’s done something that no one else in her community would have been brave enough to do. She made a huge step and is a role model for other teenage girls.” Fleur was also disturbed to learn of attitudes to disability when she visited the John Paul II home in Lokichar. She says: “The community ostracises kids if they have disabilities. People believe that if a child is born with a disability, you’ve been cursed or you’re bewitched in some way. “They even go as far as to encourage parents to kill their children if they’re disabled. They live in separate huts from their families and are neglected totally. “But they are welcome at this centre. I got really emotional at that point. “There was a boy of 15 called Peter, who had polio and couldn’t walk. “Thanks to his mother bringing him to the centre he can now get about by himself and he’s playing football. It’s amazing. Save The Children are constantly trying to change the attitudes within the communities.”
The trip made Fleur aware of her own love of children. She says: “I like to think if I wasn’t singing I would be working with children. I would love to set something up for kids in the performing arts.”
Throughout the trip, Fleur was determined not to shed a tear.
“I didn’t cry because I didn’t want to be someone who was pitying people. I wanted to bring some joy.”
Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day ( christmasjumperday.org) is tomorrow. Text GIVE to 70050 to donate £2. You will be billed £2 plus a standard rate text message. Save The Children receive 100% of your donation.
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