Hats off for charity

Apr 25 2008 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

A BUSINESSWOMAN hopes the glamour of Chester Races can help lift Indian street children out of poverty.

Sara Clegg, who owns a Chester hat hire company, is inviting racegoers to hire their hat from her for the May meeting with all proceeds going to support the Butterflies charity in New Delhi.

Butterflies provides night shelters and an alternative education system for homeless youngsters.

Sara, of Charlotte Street, Chester, heard about the group on BBC Radio 4 and has supported the project by going out to India to work on the street alongside her 14-year-old grandson Michael.

She said: “As Rita Panicker, the director of Butterflies has said, these children were already resilient by the fact they survived. The aim is to empower them to better themselves. They have a union and they have workshops. Some of the social workers I met were themselves street children and then underwent training.

“You cannot get them all off the streets. There are just too many, but you can empower them.”

She said one of the big spin-offs was a bank where the street children could store their money safely – it used to be stolen by the police and by other beggars. Some of the children eventually save enough to start businesses.

The idea was inspired by the experience of one eight-year-old Indian street child.

Now grown-up, he is the bank’s manager and spreading the same approach to other poor countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan.

Butterflies offers daily non-formal classes, including training in life skills, theatre, radio and print journalism as well as vocational training in carpentry, plumbing and electrical maintenance and repair.

A mobile health unit regularly provides advice, treatment and admission to hospital when necessary.

Sara, who has organised a fund-raising ball for Butterflies in the past, said: “I have got 200 beautiful hats and they can have the hat off me with all the money going to Butterflies.”

Sara’s Hat Hire, Grange Road, off Brook Lane, Newton, is holding the charity hat hire event for this weekend only, Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27, with prices starting at £12.50.

Anyone interested in renting a hat for charity can contact Sara on 07981 870866 or 01244 375657 (evenings). For more information about the charity visit: www.butterflieschildrights.org