We are delighted to be able to provide an update for all the pupils, teachers and families on the great success of the shoe box appeal. Your very special boxes reached several African destinations and brought smiles to the faces of many children and adults. Project Legacy, the charity of one of our parents, very kindly offered to deliver the show boxes in Africa on our behalf.

Project Legacy

Led by Paul Naden, Project Legacy is a UK charity that’s committed to delivering projects with sustainable solutions and driven by issues such as education, community development and protecting endangered species.

We use our collective knowledge and experience to improve the lives of others, improving conditions, laying sustainable foundations and nurturing development.

It’s not our intention to support a single project or species; instead we believe each project’s importance is measured on its individual merit and the value of the legacy it leaves behind for future generations. Each of our projects has a starting point, focusing on an endangered Species, a community, or children’s facility.

The projects we select specifically focus on raising standards and do provide education and development for the communities that surround it. These symbolic relationships are critical to the success of Project Legacy.

Happy House is one of our Projects and we are delighted to share its story with you.

The Happy House is a ground breaking project, steered by its inspirational founder Sue Hayward, who realised a vision of creating a residential home which is unique in that region of Kenya. It provides an exceptional standard of childcare where every child is valued, loved, respected and encouraged as an individual. Before embarking on the Happy House legacy, Sue and the UK registered charity she founded, Children of Watamu (reg 1098731), had developed three schools in the area creating 700 pupil places.

Happy House opened in March 2010 and is currently home to 109 children who are either orphaned, abandoned, abused or neglected. Most are referred through the children’s department; others come via other agencies, hospitals or community workers.

Education is key to all they do. For so many in the developing world, education is the only road out of poverty and  Happy House school has been innovative from the start.

Sue wanted the school to work along the lines of the best UK schools, with small class sizes (maximum of 25, in some government schools class sizes maybe 90+), excellent teaching resources, colourful classrooms, a shorter school day than in other Kenyan schools ( many school start at 7am and finish at 5pm) , and inter-active lessons.

This meant carefully selecting Kenyan teachers prepared to embrace challenge and change.

Project Legacy is delighted to have connected the children of Cheadle Hulme School and those so very far away in Rwanda and at The Happy House, Kenya.

All the fun filled shoe boxes you provided were condensed into 7 huge boxes which arrived in Watamu, Kenya at the end of December addressed to the children of The Happy House. They could not have been happier to open the gifts and it was all thanks to the generosity of all the pupils and parents from Cheadle Hulme School.

Some gifts were given as Christmas presents, while the remaining ones will be saved for birthday presents throughout the year. Your shoe boxes went a long way to make the children feel loved and experience friendship at such an important time.

A selection of boxes were also given out to children that Mr Naden met during his visits to Rwanda and Kenya, where he made unscheduled visits to AIDS clinics, hospitals and orphanages on his trip. Your generosity and support made a wonderful difference to the children and adults who received those gifts.

Happy House children’s home in Kenya and Cheadle Hulme School may seem worlds apart, but they share the same goal – to help each child to reach his or her full potential and it is our aim to work together to forge a link between our worlds through education.

So what do we do next?

As we speak, Mama Sue and Papa Dave are right in the middle of building a new secondary school building. Our ambition is to raise the remaining funds to complete this project, which the school so desperately needs in order to complete its construction.

We plan to do this by running a series of fund raising activities and charity events, in partnership with Project Legacy, who introduced us to the wonderful work at Happy House.

Project Legacy will be organising a second Shoe Box appeal for this Christmas 2015, aiming to send even more useful items and gifts to Africa. We will be inviting pupils to join Project Legacy’s fund raising and activity panel, acting on behalf of Cheadle Hulme School. The aim is to have internal fundraising days as well as a large scale Summer Event for Parents and Pupils, which will  be planned and organised by the school’s charity panel.

Donation Details

We’re just finalising the details of the charity calendar, which supports our fundraising plans for Happy House. We trust that you are as excited as we are, and ready to get stuck in and hit that £15.5k target! If the level of success during the shoe box collection is anything to go by, we should have no trouble meeting our goals, getting the Happy House secondary school built and ready for purpose.

In the meantime, if you are keen to do a little bit extra, and what to get involved right now, you can make a donation to our cause, by visiting this page.