My family has sponsored students since I was born, 8 years ago. My mum grew up in a family who couldn’t afford much. She missed out on school excursions and other things. She didn’t have uniforms, and sometimes didn’t have shoes! Mum says this definitely made her life harder and she had to work extra hard to do stuff (she had 5 jobs in high school!)

That’s why we support The Smith Family. Mum says kids having help with basic school stuff takes a bit of pressure off the family and will help their futures.

I decided I wanted to write a novel for a school project. Mum suggested we could publish as part of the project. I wanted to be able to sell it. And mum suggested we could donate money to a charity to help change lives. So we choose The Smith Family.

Publishing a book is a lot of work! I wrote a short story, then worked on character development to make the story more detailed. Then I worked out what illustrations the book needed. I did A LOT of drawing and painting. And A LOT of editing.

We used an editor who is in London to help because we didn’t know how to publish it properly. I learned a lot with the editor, especially about using language that people across the world will understand.

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My mum. She often tells us how fortunate we are to have access to education. She tells us that kids often miss out on the things we get, and this impacts their futures. We want to help others achieve their dreams. And I hope makes The Smith Family a lot of money!

Dream and believe. And ask for help if you have an idea, but unsure how to do it.