Monthly Highlights from Children on the Edge: April 2023

2 mins read time

​In April, on World Health Day, we celebrated #HealthForAll, as the Learning Centres in Bangladesh reported a decrease in the amount of illnesses amongst the children due to regular health checks in lessons. The following week, Refugee teacher John shared the story of his escape from the DRC and how teaching helped restore his hope. 

Our London Landmarks runners kickstarted a month of fantastic fundraising, and were followed by our brilliant London Marathon runners, Kelly and Lizzie you can read all about their marathon challenge here. The fundraising didn’t stop there, with our friends at Montezuma’s organising some eggs-ellent Easter fundraising in their stores. 

Read on to find out about our highlights from April … ​

London Landmarks 
On 2nd April, our team of six fantastic runners took part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon. Together Shoheb, Nino and the team from Chichester (Sarah, Harry, James and our very own COO Ben Wilkes) raised over £6,000! Ben told us “It was a brilliant race to take part in, the atmosphere on the day was fantastic!”  

If you fancy taking part next year, then make sure you’ve pre-registered to be one of the first to hear when the ballot opens for the 2024 race. 

London Landmarks 2024 Pre-registration

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World Health Day
On the 7th April  we celebrated the 75th World Health Day. In the overcrowded Kutupalong refugee camp, children are at risk of a whole host of illnesses and infections, including dengue fever and malaria.

​Children in every classroom we support have regular health checks, nutritional supplements and learn about first aid. Thanks to the increase in awareness, hygiene behaviours have changed for the better and we have already begun to see a decrease in the number of illnesses.

Read about our work in Kutupalong ​

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Easter at Montezuma’s
Our friends at Montezuma’s celebrated Easter in style, with an incredible range of sustainable, delicious easter treats on sale. They also organised some fantastic in-store fundraising, including personalised Easter Eggs, games and a raffle. Thank you to all of the Montezuma’s stores for their support and enthusiasm and to all of their wonderful customers for taking part in the Easter extravaganza for Children on the Edge. 

You check out Montezuma’s full range of incredible chocolates on their website. 

VISIT Montezuma’s website

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Read John’s story

Meet John Byamungu Nachale
We shared refugee teacher John’s story about his escape from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after he was the victim of an attempted murder in his home.  Having lost everything, and unable to trust anyone in the DRC, John and his family fled to Uganda. 

As they settled into life in Kyaka II John was able to begin processing the trauma he'd faced and his passion for teaching was reignited. John became the first person in his area to provide preschool education for children in the community.

Take a look at our blog to read John's story and find out how teaching helped John rediscover his hope.​