Five-year-old creates selfless superhero and raises £566

A five-year-old girl who created a ‘selfless’ superhero is achieving hero status of her own after raising almost £600 for charity.

Last year Aariya Tirahan was in reception at Braywick Court School, where the whole school was fund-raising to install latrines in developing countries as part of a toilet twinning initiative. In class she was learning about superheroes.

Aariya’s mum Vin Pooni said: “I just happened to say to her ‘if you were a superhero what would your super power be?’ and she said ‘water’.”

Water Girl is on a mission to clean the dirty water in the world so that all children have access to clean water.

Vin said her daughter was aware of the importance of clean sanitation through the toilet twinning scheme and further inspired by a Water Aid television advert – the charity she has raised £566 for.

“When she said to me about Water Girl having this super power I said to her ‘why don’t you write a story’.”

And that is exactly what Aariya did.

Her story is about a little girl called Laila who was ‘sick from drinking dirty water’ but luckily found a phone so she could call Water Girl – who came to the rescue.

The superhero cleaned the dirty water and as a parting gift left Laila a special gem which she could use to keep the water clean.

The money Aariya has raised has come from donations via Facebook and a JustGiving page – people have viewed a video showing each page of Aariya’s book with a voice-over of her telling the story.

Aariya had seen her mum make a donation to a good cause in the same way and asked Vin if she could do the same.

When it came to dressing for a supehero for the day at school, Aariya wore her Water Girl costume, which she fashioned from items from her dressing-up box – she made the mask herself.

Vin said she and Aariya’s dad, Nveen Tirahan, ‘are absolutely over the moon’ with what their young daughter has achieved.

She said: “For somebody so little to think of a super power which is so selfless and then on top of that use it to raise money – we’re just really, really proud of her.”

To make a donation to Water Aid via Aariya’s JustGiving page go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ water-girl