‘Walk in her Shoes’ for International Day of the Girl!

15 Nov 2017

Over 100 Maynard School pupils took part in a charity ‘Walk in her Shoes’  to raise awareness of all those girls around the globe who forfeit school to trek for miles to collect their families’ daily water supply.

These girls are often as young as only four years old and yet they can sometimes walk for up to six hours, either as a single journey or on multiple journeys within the same day. The return journey is often exhausting as they can be carrying up to 20 litres of mostly dirty and contaminated water.

Each of the Maynard students carried an empty water bottle on their journey which was filled up at the half way point as a symbolic measure to enhance their understanding.

Steve Smerdon, the Head of the Junior School, was the brains behind the fundraiser: “We wanted to do something meaningful on International Day of the Girl and motivate the girls to think of more global issues in a way that we could illustrate. They all embarked on the ‘Walk in her Shoes’ with a real sense of cultural understanding thanks also to a group of our Year 6 girls who took a very insightful assembly about why it is so important to raise money for this cause.

“I’m delighted that The Maynard has so far raised nearly £100 and we are still counting. This will be donated to Care International to support their project building wells and water pumps closer to rural communities,” added Mr Smerdon. “If we can stop women from having to walk for water each day then all the young girls in these communities won’t have to miss out on school which, in turn, will improve their prospects for the future and, hopefully, break the cycle of poverty.”

Anyone wishing to contribute to this worthy cause, can still do so through: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/walkinhershoesmaynard