Great British Novel
Great British Novel
'PLEASE DON'T SPONSOR ME!'
Motiram - a boy from a poor family living in a village in central India - finds himself sucked into a child sponsorship scheme run by an international charity, Action for Needy Children.
He receives health care, birthday presents, a school uniform and financial help for his family.
Good.
He also gets unanswerable letters from his sponsor, envy from his peers - and constant pressure from his father to get more money from the scheme.
Not so good.
Over the year, Motiram has to endure a misguided nutritional survey run by philanthropic women from Delhi; the well-meaning but incompetent activities of a young English volunteer; botched attempts to improve village sanitation...
- and the ultimate test: a visit from his sponsors..
which proves predictably embarrassing to all concerned.
read an extract from Motiram's first health checkup...