Martyna, shining a light on International Women’s Day

Eleven-year old Martyna and her friends Juliette and Oliwia have asked their school, Chorlton High School South in Manchester if the school can raise awareness of Rett Syndrome on International Women’s Day 2020.

As Rett Syndrome is an X-linked disorder, it does primarily affect girls and women although children of both genders can be affected.

If you are the brother, sister or friend of someone with Rett, like Martyna, maybe you can use International Women’s Day as an opportunity to reach out to your head-teacher or class teacher and ask if you can share some information about Rett?

Here is the letter which Martyna and friends sent to their teacher which you can change to suit yourself.

Dear (name of your teacher)

We are writing on behalf of the Reverse Rett charity to ask if we can put aside a date to talk about the charity and perhaps raise money through a dress-up day.

That day, we could perhaps dedicate an assembly towards the charity and talk a bit about it.

We could ask (someone you know, who knows about Rett Syndrome or you-in this case, Martyna’s mum, Ewelina, who works at the Reverse Rett office!) to come in and talk about it.

In addition, we could bring in some charity merchandise to raise even more money.

The charity is all about Rett Syndrome which is very common for girls and since we have had International Men’s Day, we think it would be just as appropriate to talk about women and girls.

The colours that represent Reverse Rett are purple and green and that day, everyone could come in with an accessory or clothes in these colours.

During lunch and break time, we could go around the school and ask teachers if they would like to donate towards the charity. And the students could also bring in a pound.

Thank you for reading our letter, we hope you consider our proposition. We think it would be a fantastic opportunity.

Juliette, Martyna, Oliwia (Year 7)