Life lessons from a child

Milla Peerutin is only eight years old, but she's already an entrepreneur with a caring heart. Her eldest sister, Alex, is sickly and spends a lot of time in hospital. In 2001 Zachary Bloch was very ill with kidney problems when he was six months old. Zachary's parents are friends of the Peerutins. Within six months of Zacharay's recovery, his parents, Jonathan and Amanda, raised more than R1-million for the hospital. Milla, a Grade 2 student at Herzlia Primary High in Vredehoek, was inspired by them to help sick children. One day she saw someone selling muffins on the street, and she decided to do the same and donate the money to the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town. Together with her family's housekeeper, Jenny Mouers, she starting baking muffins in their kitchen. Her little brother, Max (6), joined in as the official dough beater. They bake between 60 to 120 muffins at a time, in three flavours - carrot and vanilla, oats and raisins, and carrot and pecan nut. Milla sells the muffins at her parents' work place - small muffins for R5 each and the big ones for R10 each. Within three months she'd made R2242 for the hospital. You can order Milla's muffins in Cape Town by e-mailing azraa@assocmags.co.za