A 25-YEAR-old musician who has helped raise £11,000 to build a school in Uganda in a matter of years, is now fundraising for a badly needed hall for the venue.

Naomi Haigh, from Stokesley, is going all out to raise £5,000 to add a hall to a village school which she helped raise money to build.

Naomi, who teaches piano, cello and group music, has joined forces with family friend Zena Bentley, a retired music teacher from Whitby, to organise three fundraising events in and around Stokesley. Other musicians have also offered their help and will play at some of the venues.

Naomi’s mission began when she visited Uganda five years ago and by chance met the man who was starting up the school.

“John told me he was trying to find funding to start building the school and then he asked if I would be able to help,” she said.

“It was an epiphany moment; I just knew that I wanted to do something and since then Zena has come on board.”

The primary school is called Source of Light because its founder says there was nothing for the village children before the school was built.

Naomi said: “John, had inherited land had inherited land from his dad and badly wanted to provide a school so that the children could get an education and a future.

“As a child, he had walked a daily ten-mile round trip to attend school and so many children in his village had simply not attended school.

“He recognised a desperate need for education in the village. He now teaches at the school along with his fiancée and seven others.”

When the school was first set up were temporary shelters of woven reeds, but a few years on there are three buildings containing seven classrooms, a library and an office.

Naomi said: “Meeting John was one of those `fork in the road` moments in life and it has been an incredible journey. We hope to raise enough money to complete the school hall by next summer and anticipate visiting the school again in October next year.”

The events for the Source of Light Primary School are:

* July 6, from 7. 30pm a summer ceilidh at St Joseph’s RC Church Hall in Stokesley. Tickets £10, or £5 for children and students.

* July 11, a Levantine Lunch with Middle Eastern food and summertime fizz at Ravenscar Hill Road, Kirby-in-Cleveland. Tickets £20 per person

* July 20 at 1. 30pm, venue Stokesley Methodist Church, a café style concert with cello, piano trio and piano duet.

For tickets, call or text; Naomi on; 07421 056824 or Zena on; 07739 470867.