Jorja Roberts, 10, practises her violin for her grandmother Adrienne Ward-Hamilton. Photo: Charles Anderson.

Never too young to help

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She may only be 10-years-old but Jorja Roberts already knows that she old enough to bring some Christmas cheer to those in need.

Jorja, who has been playing violin since she was five, thought that she might be able to put her musical skills to use. So recently she headed out on the Nelson streets and busked.

But she wasn’t looking for extra pocket money – she wanted to donate the whole lot to Starship Children’s’ Hospital in Auckland.

“I saw a story about a boy who was born with a bad heart so he has to have surgery every week,” Jorja says. “So right then I decided I would do it for Starship.”

Jorja went out busking for two weekends and managed to raise a whopping $350 for her cause.

“It was way more than I thought I would get,” she says. “I just wanted to do something nice for someone else. Other people need it more than me.”

However, when Jorja first started wanting to learn the instrument she had to plead with her mother to let her play.

“We were thinking it would be a five-minute wonder,” says her grandmother Adrienne Ward-Hamilton.  “It started off sounding like cats in a bag but now you can really see the work she has put in.”

Jorja has just passed her grade three exam and doesn’t look like she will give up the instrument any time soon

And just as well, because she has plans to keep busking each Christmas to help others less fortunate than herself.