Seven-year-old Isiah Britt raises more than $10,000 for crisis-hit schools in Flint

Virginia boy moved by plight of students 'too scared to wash their hands' after water sanitation problems

Isiah raised more than $10,000 for schools in Flint, Michigan (GoFundMe)

A seven-year-old from Virginia has raised more than $10,000 to get sanitary water to crisis-hit schools in Flint, Michigan.

Isiah Britt heard about the water contamination problem in the city, which left students at Eisenhower Elementary School afraid to wash their hands, and decided to help.

Setting up a GoFundMe page, Isiah wrote: “Hi everyone! My name is Isiah and I am a 2nd grader at Buckland Mills Elementary in Gainesville, VA. I want to help the students at Eisenhower Elementary School in Flint Michigan.

“They have a lot of water bottles from big companies but they still can't wash their hands at school. So I am going to raise money to buy hand sanitizer for their school. $500 will help buy 20 cases of hand sanitizer (one case for each classroom). Once we meet our goal, we will have the hand sanitizer shipped directly to Eisenhower Elementary School. Thank you for helping me!”

Sharing a picture of the first shipment of sanitiser with people who had donated to his appeal, Isiah wrote: “Looks like Eisenhower Elementary School received the first part of their shipment of hand sanitizer!”

Following his appeal, which has raised a total of $10,125 in two weeks, Isiah now has enough money to get sanitising products to every single school in the city.

Reaching his goal, Isiah wrote: “We have raised enough to send hand sanitizer to every school in Flint! Let keep going until all kids in Flint have clean hands!! Thank you for all the support and well wishes! #IsiahsHelpingHand #Cleanhands.”

Spurred on by the successful fundraising campaign, Isaiah’s parents told WTVR their son’s next goal was to help day-care and women’s centres in the city.