Setting a shining example

11 July 2002

Young men at Onley Young Offenders’ Institute (YOI) will be buffing staff members’ boots in return for donations to help Colombian street children.

Funds raised from the shoe-shine will go to a project in the Colombian capital Bogotà, supported by Y Care International, the international relief and development agency of the YMCA in the UK and Ireland. The project works to stop children from leaving home in the first place, and to reunite those who have left with their families.

YMCA outreach worker Julie Dunkley, who is based at the YOI, said: “Whatever problems these lads may have had, they are determined to give something back to young people who are worse off than they are.”

Y Care International’s Alison Sanderson said: “Shoe shining is one way children and young people on the streets in the developing world earn a living to survive. Initiatives this one at Onley do a great deal to raise awareness of the condition in which children and young people are forced to survive in poverty, and raise vital funds for Y Care International’s work in this area.”