THE DILEMMA - WE WOULD ALL HELP ONE CHILD IN TROUBLE, BUT WHAT DO WE DO WHEN THERE IS A MILLION?

"For a little seven year old with no lunch or breakfast, a walk of four and half miles a day to school and four and a half miles home is a very long way"

If you can afford the fees, you will not be there to send them off to school if you are a maid. If you are a maid your working day starts far too early. What about uniforms, and books, and lunches? How do you find money for these and feed your children and have the baby looked after? There is no free child care and no free medical care other than the most rudimentary available for Sarah and her family if she cannot pay. There are no free buses to school and if Solomon cannot pay he must walk four and half miles to school and back – and for a little seven year old with no breakfast or lunch that is a long way back and forth each day.

UK Vending Ltd and its staff has adopted Solomon and Sarah and Minnie. School fees are met including lunch and snacks, Solomon gets his books and a summer uniform and a winter uniform are provided as the seasons change – and always accompanying them is the newest England team strip in the next size up. Solomon is not big for his age and the last photo of him in his England team strip engulfed him – but no way was he not wearing it. Medical insurance has been paid for the family and dental care is provided and let us not overlook the optician without whose services Solomon would have a different life today. Finally, Solomon has a place on the bus and a season ticket to ride.

We have adopted more than a dozen children and their families in this way so far. Solomon is the newest and the youngest but this year there will be more. The oldest is Helen due to begin college this autumn. We have looked after her for seven years and she is now sixteen. Helen’s is another story which we will tell on our website over the next few months along with regular updates on Solomon. Perhaps we will tell the tales of some of the other children whose lives have been changed because we gave them a little help.

We have been lucky that the past forty years have been good to our business and to our staff and their families. We decided we wanted to give something back. Of course we gave, as do many businesses, and as do our staff, to deserving causes but never felt this went far enough. We wanted to see the effect of what we could do on a few lives and so we found children in South Africa who needed a little help. We established the UKV Guardian Angels scheme and it has prospered and grown. We hope that Helen and Solomon will do so too – with a little help from their friends.