Great Barr pupils inspired by plight of Sierra Leone orphan

Nov 26 2009 by Tony Collins, Birmingham Mail

PUPILS at a Birmingham school have been left asking “What would David do?” after being inspired by the poignant story of an orphan boy during a trip to a war-torn African country.

Eight students from Great Barr School in Aldridge Road spent their October half-term holiday on a life-changing trip to Sierra Leone.

Great Barr has been forging a link with a school in the village of Waterloo near Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, for some years, and is currently raising funds to transport 150 old computers, as well as build a generator and a secure computer room for them.

Each of the Birmingham students was paired with a pupil from the Waterloo school.

And it was 17-year-old Chris Watson’s ‘partner’ David Kargbo, also 17, who inspired the whole Great Barr group with his moving story.

Chris said: “David’s father had been killed in the civil war and his mother had died of malaria. He lived with his uncle and his 12 children, and slept in a single bed with three other children.

“David and his family ate the same diet of rice every day. He got up every morning at 4am and went to work making charcoal until noon when he went to school. And after school he would go to work again.”

Chris said: “I saw a bare classroom with 110 children in it. We do not appreciate how lucky we are to have the teaching facilities we have.”

The Year 13 students did what they could to change the lives of their new friends by each paying their school fees for a year – worth about £15.