Charities Coordinate for Malawi Street Children

Well-Good, a charity run by Mr Grant Heppleston, a Maths teacher at Bolton School Girls’ Division has committed to join Mrs Marsden’s Junior Girls’ fundraising campaign to build a school in Malawi for street children.

Well-Good, which launched in 2015, has already benefitted children in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Niger and Bangladesh and is now set to provide water for the planned Malawi school.

Mr Heppleston said: ‘Having easy access to water means that children don’t spend all day collecting water. They can go to school - and get water there!

‘The Well-Good concept is that primary and secondary school children answer online Maths questions; the more questions they get right, the more clean water we can provide, through our generous sponsors, to those in need. Roughly ten questions answered correctly equates to a day’s water for one person. The project actually has a triple impact – children save lives whilst improving their Maths skillset and learning the importance of undertaking charitable deeds. They genuinely get a buzz out of using the site because they can see that they are saving lives!

‘The website offers a range of questions, of varying difficulty, and has been known to see children competing against their parents! They answer questions on times tables, negative numbers, decimal numbers and prime numbers. We are a community interest company and thirteen schools are currently signed up as regular users of the site.

‘Right now, we are trying to attract more sponsors. Their money is needed to send to the water charities when children answer the questions correctly. This is an excellent way for companies to do good in their community and to show their corporate social responsibility. Over the past seven years, the Well-Good website – www.well-good.org - has received over two and a half million hits and over 6 million Maths questions have been answered by more than 5000 children. Anyone who is interested in discussing sponsorship packages, should visit the website or email me on [email protected].’

Mrs Marsden, who teaches in the Junior Girls’ School at Bolton School, has so far raised over £10,000 towards the building of the Malawi School.