On a family safari trip to East Africa last July we ended our vacationin Zanzibar for a bit of time on the beach. During this time, I persuaded my family to let me wander into the nearest village, Paje.I went mainly with the intention of taking photographs and was only some 20 metres from the main road when I met Othman. Othman kicked his football in my direction and we ended up playing together with this punctured old ball for about 20 minutes. We could hardly communicate but he still managed to introduce me to all his friends. I went back with my family to visit him and his friends the next day and we all played football and tried to teach the kids how to play cricket. 

During the earlier part of our trip, whilst in Kenya, one of our safari guides – Enock – had explained how he was growing in a Masai village when he met a family on vacation who subsequentlysponsored his education in Nairobi. This schooling had clearly proven life-changing – something which became very evident to me when I visited some of these Masai villages. Enock has now travelled to Miami for a few weeks and I keep in touch with him from time to time on Facebook. 

It was Enock’s story that really inspired me to do something. So,after Othman had introduced me to his mum, I took her details and promised her that I would come back. She actually showed us Othman’s school and I was shocked by the lack of facilities, the huge number of students in each class and also the fact that the Headteacher spoke next to no English.

I started planning my trip back as soon as I got home. One of the first things I discovered was that there was international school 5 minutes down the road from Othman’s house (South East Coast). I emailed them and they were really kind saying that they would love to welcome Othman to the SEC. I also asked them if It would be okay if I worked there during October half term whilst I made sure that Othman actually liked the school and worked out travel arrangements. I called Othman’s mum to let her know and she was delighted. 

I then started fundraising, I have now raised nearly £20,000 through a combination of selling framed prints, notelets and postcards of my photographs online. My pictures have even gone to Ireland, Zambia, the USA, Mauritius, India, Switzerland and France.  I’ve hosted two events in London as fund-raising evenings where I’ve displayed my photos. I’ve contacted prep schools who have kindly donated their termly chapel collections

I went out to Zanzibar again in October half term with a friend and we brought about 100kg worth of donations that we had received from friends and family. We spent two weeks at the SEC school teaching. We would arrange morning activities for the younger kids and help the upper primary student with English and maths. Most of our time was spent with the local kids who struggled a bit more with reading and writing. We introduced lots of games like ‘capture the flag’ and even helped introduce some science experiments.

Whilst we were there, we brought Othman and his mum over to the school twice to look around and speak to the headteacher. I spoke to some of the Swahili speaking kids who were Othman’s age and they were really kind to him so he became a bit more comfortable, I was also able to gauge from them a bit more that Othman was genuinely happy to be moving school which I was worried about because I got the impression that his mum was so blown away by the school’s facilities that she wasn’t worried enough about whether Othman would be happy. I sorted out all the forms that needed to be signed and Othman started school the week after I left Zanzibar. When we weren’t in the school, we spent most of our time in Paje playing football with Othman and his friends.

I carried on fundraising after we returned. I get constant photo updates from his teacher and understand he is really enjoying maths and has a new “bro” at school. I now have a tie-up with Africa Exclusive who have bought the rights to one of my photos for £1,000 and are advertising my story to their clients. I spoke to Othman and his father a few weeks ago on the phone and Othman’s English was better than his Dad’s! 

I am currently planning my trip back in August. We will go to check-up on Othman and hopefully to help build a secondary school for the SEC because a lot of students are now outgrowing the school. Since I have now raised far more money than is needed to pay for Othman’s education, I am considering other ways to use the money. One of these is to sponsor two brothers who live in Paje called Raffie and Rama. I befriended them last year on my first visit and they are adorable.

100% of the profits made from this website will go towards supporting Othman and both Paje and the SEC school.

If you would prefer you can also raise money through my Justgiving page