How lucky are we?

How lucky are we that when school starts in September we can all go and buy a new coat, bag, shoes, stationery and much more, spending over £40 at a time?

In Gunjur, Gambia, one child pays £4 a year to go to pre-school. Not many families can afford £4.

In Gunjur, one child pays £40 a year to go to secondary school. Hardly any families can afford £40.

What is £4 worth to you? A bit of pocket money spent on sweets or a meal in McDonald’s. What is £40 to you? A new coat or a bag from one of your favourite designer shops?

Any child in Gunjur would love to live in our luxurious lifestyle, even just for one day.

To go to school, to have a lollipop or even something as simple as having a photograph taken.

These children live in a world where the only means of success in life is through education. Without education they cannot escape from their world into a better one like ours.

To them we are amazing: we can be their saviours, their role models and someone who they can look up to.

By spending a week with these fantastic people I got the opportunity to witness how desperate they are to have a better life, to be able to become educated or even just to be able to own something as simple as a pencil.

It makes me feel guilty when I know that I can just go into town and buy a pen and find it not such a big deal when I now know that someone would be saving up their money for ages to buy something so simple.

One thing that still surprises me is how happy everyone is.

They do not complain that they hardly have any possessions, they do not complain that they do not go to school, so why do we complain when we do not have the latest phone or we have a bad hair day?

Why are we unhappy when we have everything we could possibly dream for?

Ask yourself this question: how lucky are we?

By Bethan Hire, 15, The Commonweal School