Crowdfunder launched to help inspire young people in Portsmouth schools

Roni Edwards, who runs Pamodzi Creatives, which celebrates the inspirational women around Portsmouth, has set up a crowdfunding campaign, with the goal being bringing inspirational people into schools to restore pupils' drive.

She hopes to raise £5,000 to bring people, such as artists, into schools in September to help pupils ease back into school.

She also plans to bring people in on a more regular basis once the schools are back to normal, as part of the curriculum, in order to give pupils people to look up to who are doing great things for themselves and others.

She said: ‘I’m really excited about the opportunity about building a bridge between inspirational people and schools and focusing on the transitions into school.

‘I want to give young people an aspiration to work towards.

‘Something needs to be done, we need to help our young people because not everyone can write an essay, but you can inspire them to do something different. The people we have got - and we have got some really talented artists - they could be a really good thing to help people transitioning back into school.’

The National Education Union is backing the project.

Another aim of the crowdfunder is to support the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards going, which celebrate women that are making waves in the community.

Roni said: ‘I’m really excited to keep the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards going, but this is an extension of that into inspirational people of all genders in the community.’

Her plan is to branch the business out into celebrating successful men, as well as women and she will coincide the plans with both International Women’s and Men’s Days.

Another goal of Roni’s is to fund an accredited course in business and project management for one young person to attend at Portsmouth College.

She has 12 days to reach her final target of £5,000 and people who donate can receive rewards such as T-shirts, video blogs and a spot as a headline sponsor at the next Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards.

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