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Plans to build a school with funds raised by a charity set up by Victoria Climbie’s parents could be under threat unless the government honours its promise to donate £10,000 within the next three weeks, writes Sally Gillen.

Francis and Berthe Climbie, who are on a five-week visit to the UK to launch and publicise the charity established in their daughter’s memory, were told by the children’s minister that she could not guarantee when the money would be given.

At a 45-minute meeting with the Climbies last week, Margaret Hodge offered the money, but warned that as it was for an overseas project parliamentary approval was needed, raising doubts it would be available in time.

But the Climbies, who have so far raised just £4,000 of the £250,000 needed to build and run the school for five years, now fear they will not get the £12,500 they need to secure the purchase of the land before they fly back home to the Ivory Coast next month.

The money would be used to buy half of the land needed for the school, which is being sold to the charity by elders within Mr and Mrs Climbie’s community for a quarter of the normal £10.00 per square yard price.

Money from The Victoria Climbie Charitable Trust, which was formally launched last week, will pay for a school in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, where Victoria was born.

Mr Climbie told Community Care: “My family, friends and community are very excited about this school, not just excited but hopeful too. That is why it must be a success. We have qualified teachers in the area who willing to work for half their salary and have already formed a committee.”

Eight-year-old Victoria Climbie was entrusted to the care of her great aunt Marie-Therese Kouao in the belief that would receive an education in England.

But she died in February 2000, 10 months after arriving in the UK, having suffered appalling abuse at the hands of Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. Both were jailed in 2001.

Mr Climbie said: “Providing this school in Abobo will give at least some children an opportunity. It might open the gates for them to fulfill their potential and stop them making the journey Victoria did.”

* To make a donation to the Victoria Climbie Charitable Trust go to www.victoriaadjoclimbie.org.uk or call 020 7618 9181 Or send a cheque, made payable to The Victoria Climbie Charitable Trust, to PO Box 184, Southall, Middlesex UB7 7RR