Child of Hope

Providing hope and a future for the children of Africa

Registered Charity Number: 1136068
Broadstone, Dorset

Child sponsorship worked for Peter

Date Posted: 03 Oct 2016

Peter (aged 15), used to be a street kid… but is now pretty chuffed with himself for reaching secondary school.

He was 8 when we first met Peter’s mother, who begged and pleaded with us to help her son. He had run away from home and was living on the streets. He had grown tired of the constant gnawing hunger of poverty and had been seduced by the seemingly free lifestyle of the street kids.  

He seemed like a good candidate for our help and brought him into our nursery. But it was tough going for the first year of two – a life on the streets changes a child and he was constantly fighting with other children and generally getting into all kinds of trouble.  

After a lot of love, attention and strict boundaries, Peter’s life started to turn around and we realised that he was actually pretty bright! His mother died a couple of years ago and Peter now stays in our children’s home. 

His life since coming to Child of Hope hasn’t always been easy going, though. A couple of years ago ‘the street’ called to him again and we had a tough job getting him away from bad influences. But he turned things around again and worked really hard for his primary leavers’ exam. He managed to achieve division 2 results (narrowly missing division 1 by just 1 mark) and is happy to be in secondary school…  a huge change from the certain life of crime (and possible early death) that was his future on the streets back in 2008.  

He said: “Thank you to Child of Hope for sponsoring me. I am now living a good life and in the future I’d love to be an astronaut – but if that doesn’t work out I’m hoping to study to become a doctor. Please continue helping us.”

Would you like to sponsor one of the children at our school? Click here for more information.