Dr Barnardo
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Thomas Barnardo was a Christian who wanted to become a Medical Missionary and go to China. A medical missionary could do two things. He could help people when they were ill and he could tell them about Jesus. When he was 21 he first went to a hospital in London to become a medical student and learn to become a doctor.
Thomas found that there were many children in London who had no homes. Some of them could make a little bit of money by doing jobs like cleaning people's shoes but others had no money at all so they begged for money from people who were walking past. Some children stole money or stole food. If they had not done this they would have starved.
Picture of a boy cleaning someone's shoe.
Picture of Poor boy
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Thomas and some of the other medical students talked about what they could do to help these children.
They thought that if the children could learn to read and do some arithmetic they might be able to get jobs. They started a school. All the children who came were very poor and their clothes were almost rags so people said this was a ragged school.
One of the boys was called Jim Jarvis. He said to Thomas Barnardo, "Please do not send me out into the street when school is over tonight. Please let me stay with you." "Very well," said Thomas. "You can come home with me."
Later Thomas said, "Do you have any friends who have nowhere to go?"
Picture of 2 poor boys
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"Yes," said Jim. If you come with me I will show you." They went out that night and Jim showed Thomas Barnardo that some of his friends were hiding under a railway arch. Other children were hiding in a dockyard where ships brought in coal during the day. All together there were hundreds of children who had no homes to go to.
This story continues next week. Go to Puzzle Forward to page 2
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