14 Month Calendar for Educating Others

A fourteen month Calendar is being prepared for Educating Others, and this will be available from the last week of November. These will not be sent out by post because of the expense. For friends and supporters local to Rolleston on Dove, the Calenders can be obtained for £10-00 each from the Editor's home address - 31 Burnside, Rolleston on Dove, DE13 9DN. For other friends, the Calendar can be obtained in pdf by sending an e-mail to daveinuk@foxmail.com. Though the pdf downloads are free, it would be appreciated if a donation could be sent to the Educating Others bank account. Details of which will be found on the back page of the Newsletter.

To enlarge image and download in jpeg, click on each page of 
Calendar, then save to a folder on your computer.

Rose of Sharon - High School Magazine

The students at Rose of Sharon High School have produced a magazine, and we will be showing several pages from this. We will not print it all at once, but we hope you will be impressed by the professional way in which they have produced this. The reproduction is rather small, but if you 'zoom' in you will be able to read it perfectly.

LATEST from GUA AFRICA

We have recently received the following e-mail from Kate at GUA AFRICA

From: Kate Gumm
Date: 24/09/2010 11:23:25
To: David Yates
Subject:

re: Have you any news for me this month?

Hello David,

I hope you and everyone at Educating Others is well. This month has been a rather slow month in terms of developments with the Emma Academy Project. We are eagerly awaiting the funds that will see us reach our final fundraising target for Phase 1 so that we can see the 5 Primary School classrooms completed and in use.  Having said that, GUA Africa and our founder Emmanuel Jal have been invited to a World Bank Conference in early October and we are hopeful that this event might bring us some welcome news in relation to the funding for the classrooms.

Emmanuel Jal

Your members may or may not be aware that September 21st is the United Nations Day of Peace. To mark the occasion, GUA Africa teamed up with the UN funded organisation Peace One Day and organised a football match event promoting peace in the town of Leer, Southern Sudan. It was part of Peace One Day’s "One Day One Goal" initiative where they organise football matches in conjunction with local NGOs in some of the world’s most currently and recently volatile regions. GUA Africa was immensely proud to be able to facilitate such an event on behalf of South Sudan. The day was a huge success, with an estimated 4,000 people turning up to watch the match and to voice their support of peace in the region. In the first photo attached you can see one of the teams lining up for their photo with a home made ‘Peace One Day’ banner in the background. In the second you can see one of the teams being introduced to the Unity State Government of Southern Sudan Commissioner who came out to support the event.

On behalf of GUA Africa I would like to thank all of your members for their continued support of our cause, and in particular their extra efforts made this past month with your highly successful Coffee Morning. We truly appreciate the support you are giving to us.

 
Warm regards,

 
Kate Gumm
GUA Africa
www.gua-africa.org

UNEXPECTEDLY............ by Phithi

Normally I write an Editor's Letter for our Newsletter, but in our latest issue, Phithi, one of our Founders, has contributed his assessment of our first nine months.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

I always love to hear people using words and phrases like, “against all odds”, “unexpectedly”, “To my surprise” etc. Every time I hear these words, I always exclaim, “Wow, a determined heart and mind achieves what it never fathomed”!

When we started Educating Others, about 9 months ago, we never knew where the whole venture will take us. We just had one aim; to raise funds to reach children who need support for their education. We did not have money, sponsors, bonds, stock markets, cows, goats, houses, bank accounts and other things like that which you would expect anyone venturing into ‘supporting others’ have got to have. We only had our hearts, minds and drive. On top of that, we dressed ourselves with integrity and transparency and purposed that we will never use a single penny from the donations. It was a challenge, but we determined to try. We probably sang the famous childhood song, “try, try, try again. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”. And trying we did, and today we are amazed at what our supporters and ourselves have managed to achieve.

Affording a child a decent education is the greatest gift one can ever give. It’s more than all the glittering gifts that we normally give to the toddlers every year, though there is nothing wrong with glittery toys. But education is long lasting, a child who gets it today will have it for the rest of their lives, and no climate change will ever erode it. However, supporting children’s education is never easy if one is to make it a lone venture without supporters behind him/her. 

Last month (August 28), we hosted our first ever coffee morning, asking our supporters to once again rally behind us as they have done since December 2009 when we announced our venture. People came in droves to support us and they were so determined and excited to make a difference to children out there. Their generosity humbled us, we never thought they would rally behind this worthy cause the way they did.  A child somewhere in Sudan and Zimbabwe is smiling because of the support that we have been offered. Our gratefulness to all our supporters is ever eternal; the more you support us, the more children out there are afforded a better future.

Educating Others has been buoyed by this support. Our determination and strong sense of duty, transparency and integrity has been rejuvenated once again and we are proud of what we have managed to achieve to this day. Out of all the funds that we have raised to date, ALL of it has gone to our beneficiaries: GUA Africa and Rose of Sharon, we stand proud in confirming that we have never used a single penny for stationery or printing costs. This is what we promised and this is what we are doing. Unexpectedly, Educating Others is managing to do what it set out to do. Of course, we thank our Trustees led by David and Brenda Yates, Father Michael Freeman and Father Timothy Ganz, myself and Kudakwashe Lionel Kupara. Our future is indeed bright the same way as the future of the organisations and children we support.

Phithi Ngcobo, 25 September 2010.

 

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

 

The total raised at the Coffee morning on 28th August, was

£.483.53

In August, we also had a Donation to our cause from 

St. John the Divine Parish Church, Horninglow, Burton on Trent of

£.250.00

 

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

 

 

"A SECOND MILE-STONE" for Educating Others

£.2000-00

With our September Donations to 

Rose of Sharon and Gua Africa Emma Academy,

we will have sent over £.1000-00 to each of these

worthy causes since we launched

Educating Others in late December 2009

Thank you to all who have so

generously supported us.

 Trustees

 Fr. Michael Freeman

Fr. Timothy Ganz

Phithizela Ngcobo

Kudakwashe Lionel Kupara
Ruth Cookson
Heather Taylor

Brenda Yates

David Yates

28 August - Our First Social Event - fantastic result!

A first Fund Raising Event for a small Charity is always a nail-biting affair wondering if it will be a success or not. Well, Educating Others' first event surpassed our wildest expectations. So far over £485-00 has been raised to be divided between GUA Africa and Rose of Sharon. The weekend didn't end there, after Church on Sunday 29 August, Phithi (our co-founder) was presented with a cheque for £250-00 from the congregation and PCC of St. John's Church, Horninglow and again this will be shared between our beneficiaries. We at Educating Others are so grateful for the generosity shown by the people in our area of Staffordshire, and though many have been thanked personally, we hope if we have missed anyone that they will accept our thanks through this Blog and our Newsletter. A few photos from Saturday's event are below.

A few of the visitors

some of the Sale items

Phithi chatting with three people with Zimbabwe connections;
Cyril on the left was in east Africa for 50 years, leaving
Zimbabwe in 2003. Heather, on the right, was born in the then
Rhodesia, Jane in the middle was also born there.
Cyril and Heather have both written articles for our earlier
Newsletters and both live locally.

Co-founder, Brenda Yates standing, chatting to helpers

Some more visitors

Phithi with Jane and Heather

Phithi with co-founders David and Brenda Yates standing
behind and three of the helpers at the event.

26 August - A Story from Rose of Sharon

Earlier today we received many photographs and a couple of short stories from Rose of Sharon, one of which we re-print below as written together with three photos.                                           

A FRIDAY AT ROSEY’S SHILOH UNIT CHILDREN

Starting out as a normal schooling day, children of Rose of Sharon School better known as Rosey by local residents were learning as usual but not until break time was over when the silence was broken by the melodious singing of the school choir and the dance group.

These two groups were rehearsing a presentation for visitors who were expected at Rose of Sharon Shiloh Unit.

By the way, Shiloh Unit is a childrens’ home for vulnerable and orphaned children under Rose of Sharon Organisation founded by Mrs F.Maruta. As energetic as the rehearsals were, these were all efforts of the Principal, and the school choir conductor Mrs Ndunduma who were working relentlessly aiming for perfection. Other students were peeping through windows as wanted to watch their peers rehearse for it had been very unfortunate that the principal had forbidden them to go outside. Mrs Maruta on the other side was busy putting things in order in preparation of a much more bigger event. As the visitors came in, they were greeted with an enthusiastic presentation from the dance group and choir. You could feel the expression, the spirit, I can not even explain but it was awesome. It was what I call a rejuvenating experience, that even neighbors saw what Rose of Sharon can do best as they were watching from their Durawalls. I heard one visitor calling the presentation International because of the awesome performance. Besides the presentation, we had time to interact with guys from local media and of the Internal Auditors. It was quite an experience and I salute the dance group and choir for giving such a fantastic presentation.

 NEWS EDITOR/WRITER - TAKUNDA DUBE

18 August - Up date from GUA Africa

This up-date info together with some photographs, is part of an e-mail received earlier today from Kate Gumm at GUA Africa

Preparation work for the building of the five brand new classrooms has begun at the Mary John site. The AMA construction team (and some local parents) began clearing the site by uprooting the couple of trees that were in the way of the build. The area in and around the Mary John School is very green and has a great deal of vegetation, so in order to make room for this massive expansion in their size they will have to sadly take down two trees. The AMA team then set about taking the necessary measurements, and marking out the construction site from the rest of the school.

Once all these measurements and markings had been completed, the digging of the foundations could begin. As you can see in the photographs the labourers first remove the top soil to an average depth of 150mm from the natural ground level and then they excavate a trench foundation in the ordinary soil to a depth not exceeding 1,000mm from the stripped ground level. These foundations will then be filled with timbers, but we will update you with photographs with these in the next newsletter!

Don't forget the Fund-raising Event - Saturday, 28 August

Old Free Grammar School,

Rolleston-on-Dove  -  Now the Church Room

Founded by Bishop Sherborne of Chichester

Robert Sherborne was born in Rolleston-on-Dove, and died in 1536. He was Dean of St. Paul's, London from 1499 to 1505, and from 1505 to 1508 he was bishop of St Davids in Wales. He then became Bishop of Chichester in 1508 until his death 1536.

He was a patron of the artist Lambert Bernard, commissioning several series of murals from him. He founded the Free Grammar School in Rolleston, around 1520, and it continued in use until 1909, when a new school was built in School Lane.

This is the Bishop of Chichester's silver seal which was taken to London once a year to obtain £10.00 which Robert Sherbourne left to provide funds towards the schoolmaster's stipend.

"A MILE-STONE" for Educating Others

£.1000-00

With our July Donations to 

Rose of Sharon and Gua Africa Emma Academy,

we have now sent £.500-00 to each of these

worthy causes since we launched

Educating Others

Thank you to all who have so

generously supported us.

"TEARS of JOY" by Phithi

One interesting aspect of human beings is the ability to cry. Crying is something that we all do and in most instances it symbolises pain and sorrow. When people cry, it’s normally the heart responding to an event or something emotional that has happened. So many times, we do not want to see tears, we hate them; they break our hearts and remind us of the painful events that take place in life. We would rather see smiles and laughter than tears. In some instances, we try to suppress them. I remember growing up when sometimes crying was viewed as a sign of weaknesses, we were supposed to be strong and ‘hold the tears’ especial if you were a man. Cry babies were scorned and frowned upon, while stoicism and heroic acts were praised. I remember reading a book in 2003 called, A Man Cannot Cry by Gloria Keverne, a British national who was born in the then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), a remarkable book about a young British doctor who went to Zambia and established roots there. The story is so emotional and moving, and at the end, the doctor has to leave Zambia to go back home. The day he returns breaks his and everyone else’s heart with some characters crying a bucketful of tears, but the young doctor manages to hold his tears as a man! Unfortunately poor me, I failed to hold mine at the end of the book, there I was shedding tears, a man cannot cry indeed!

I know my introduction has been some ramblings and ‘diatribes’ as Dave would call it, but I am still talking about tears. The first time I watched a video by Emmanuel Jal’s talk during a Ted Conference, I cried. Emmanuel spoke a language that finds its way into our hearts; how he lost his family during war and the challenges of being a child soldier. This was painful, it made me cry. However, his resolve to build schools for former child soldiers was something that I admired (and made me cry) thus Educating Others’ decision to support him. Once again today, Educating Others is making me cry again, but the difference this time is that it’s tears of joy. We are getting there, managing to reach a lot of children out there and making a difference in their lives. It takes simple everyday citizens like us, faced with everyday challenges and needs to take that vital everyday step to make a difference out there. We are so grateful and proud of our sponsors and supporters (who are your everyday citizens) who have indeed shared with us their hard-earned resources to help us make a difference. We are looking forward to our fundraising event by the end of this month; we look forward to more tears of joy as we are confident of your support.

Editor's Letter ~ July 2010

 

 Hello again everyone,

 

Well, we are past Midsummer’s Day and the nights will be getting longer again. Where has this year gone to? In addition to our regular donors, to whom we offer our grateful thanks, we do from time to time receive gifts and donations from other well-wishers, Churches and groups. In June we received nearly £400 given and promised in this way, and this has shown that even in times of financial difficulty, we can give to those less fortunate than ourselves. I can tell you all that since we started Educating Others in late December 2009, we have already sent nearly £1000* to Africa.

 

We are now looking forward to our first social event which will be held in the Old Grammar School, behind Saint Mary’s Church in Rolleston. Phithi will be with us on this occasion and I am sure many of you will want to meet him. 

Many of you have been asking when our fellow trustee Kuda will be able to visit us. We are unable to give an answer to this vexed question, but we hope that when he applies again for a Visa to ‘holiday’ with us in the UK, he will be successful. I include this month in our Newsletter, Kuda’s ‘autobiography’, which shows how much the thirst for knowledge is embedded in the African soul. Kuda, and thousands like him on that continent, is a shining example of what can be achieved, and this is what Educating Others is all about -  helping to give young people a basic education to put them on the road to success.   We again include information received from our two beneficiaries, together with a few more extracts from the Rose of Sharon students’ Newsletter (Transformer).   I am still keeping the link to Chen Jie and my book on our travels in China at the bottom of this page, and as a reminder, £5-00 from every sale goes to Educating Others. I have soft copies available.   And finally, I have set up this blog for Educating Others which will contain some articles from previous issues of our Newsletter and other relevant items of interest.   The Trustees again thank you for your continued support,   David   (*  The £1000 mentioned, includes the donations we will be sending at the end of July)

Link to 'CHINA - A Travellers Diary'

 

THE PROOF ~ "The Thirst for Education"

Many times in our Newsletter which is sent out monthly in pdf, and in this blog, we report the insatiable desire of young people in Africa to better themselves through education. As far as EDUCATING OTHERS is concerned, we have to look no further than two of our own Trustees - Phithi and Kuda. These two young men are a shining example of the determination to succeed in their chosen fields. The story of their journey through their school and university lives is an example to all students world-wide. We are printing two self portraits of this journey. The first is Phithi's and is taken from our Newsletter of January 2010, and this is followed by Kuda's account. No further comment is required - the accounts speak for themselves and are an inspiration to all who read them

Phithizela Ngcobo

I was born to a simple family in the rural area of Zimbabwe in the southern part of the country known as Matabeleland. My father worked in the city while we lived in the village with my mother. My late mother, (let her dear soul rest in peace), was a simple rural woman who never got a chance to go to school, but surprisingly seemed to understand the importance of education more than most people around her. She always emphasised that with education, I could be anything I wished to be, but in particular she would encourage us to learn so that we could be able to stand on our feet in the future. Even after my father's passing away in 1997 while I was still an 'A' Level student, my mother was prepared to sell even her last teaspoon and pin to make sure that I completed my studies and went to University. Fortunately at that time, university education was still free in Zimbabwe so I knew that passing 'A' Levels would be the last hedge to jump.  

After completing my first degree and working in Zimbabwe as a Book Editor, I had the best opportunity in life when Oxford Brookes University offered me a Scholarship to study for a Masters Degree in Publishing. Looking back now, I realise what a privilege this was for me, but I also realise that there are so many intelligent children out there who are not clamouring for a Master degree, but a basic education that will enable them to stand on their own. So my resolve is to raise some funds to donate to charities that are trying to help children, who are the future. 

I have published books from the primary school to the higher education level. However, my  main area of interest is in Children's publishing, that is, publishing books aimed at young children and teenagers. My focus is on the issues that affect  children, the values that writers and editors pass on to them through books.  I  also  look  at  the  use  of  language,  its   suitability to children of a certain age group and how parents and guardians can play a role in making sure children access the books that are relevant and suitable for them. It is this area of interest that encouraged me to venture into charity work focusing on  children.  My future dream is to start a publishing house publishing books that focus on children and help them to become responsible adults who will mould our world for better.

I am also a co-founder of an Oxford-based book publisher, Oxford-Mosaic Publications,  founded in 2008,  which publishes books in social sciences and the humanities.

Phithi with his mother in 2002
 

I realised that I did not have much resources myself and my meagre donation may be a mockery to these charities, but I remembered the words of Mother Theresa, a great woman of all time. She said,

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

 AND

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

I then realised that what matters is not how much you have, but the heart to give. I shared my idea with some friends and David, a father figure to me and his wonderful wife Brenda, (who incidentally shares the same name and birthday with my younger sister Brenda), agreed to partner me by matching whatever donation I make towards charity every month. I am ever so grateful to them for their support, friendship, love and their guidance will ever be a great part of the story of my life. Through them, I have realised how as human beings, we are a family that is scattered across the globe and that wherever we go, there is a part and members of our family, we only need to open our eyes and heart to meet them.  David, Brenda and myself are very much excited with this idea because we feel that we have the opportunity to make a difference to other people's lives out there and are confident that God will give us strength and ability to do the little that we can do to make a difference.

Kudakwashe Lionel Kupara

 Kuda

I am commonly known as Kuda, am a Biochemist, philosopher and writer currently pursuing doctoral studies in Biology at Texas A and M University, in College Station, Texas (USA). My current scientific interests are in Molecular Genetics specifically Epigenetics and genomic "homeostasis" or simply stated “how the cell makes decisions” 

In contrast to my background in Biological Sciences I am currently pursuing literary writing projects. My writings are on general perceptions of life, reality and ethics expressed in fiction writings and articles on global international affairs as well as politics.  I have strong philan-thropic convictions which emanate strongly in my writings.

I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, to a large family, on the 11^th of September 1983 at a time when my mother was a primary school teacher and my father was a laboratory technician at a non-alcoholic beverage company. Although my parents passed on long before their days, they would have been proud to see how much the strong emphasis they placed on the value of education inspired me: I obtained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree at the University of Zimbabwe in 2005 and a Master of Science degree in Biotechnology in 2007 at the same university.

In addition to the inspiration I drew from my parents another major proponent of my academic ambition was the value upon which I place innovation and creativity in a world that is becoming increasingly challenging. I strongly believe that “We can only secure the future of our generation and generations to come if we learn from today and create new knowledge for tomorrow”, which is one of the reasons why I aim to remain involved in active research whilst teaching at the same time.

I have been participating in voluntary peer counselling training directed towards lessening the devastation of the scourge of HIV and AIDS in my home country, Zimbabwe. I have also been involved in environmental awareness campaigns that also focused on the socio-economic environment which involved liaison with orphanages in Zimbabwe. During the course of this voluntary work, I “experienced a most amazing awakening. I saw myself in every single one of those orphans. If my parents, before their days ended, set me on the path of education, then why should any child be denied this chance?” Because of this, I was naturally drawn to the cause of David, Brenda and Phithi of “Educating Others”. “One child educated is a generation rescued”. 

 

Gua Africa, Emma Academy ~ Southern Sudan

Check back on this section,

it will be up-dated on a regular basis,
scroll down to last report.

12 July - Toilet blocks now complete with photos
Total Funds raised to date for Phase 1 of Emma Academy
20 July - Update with photos
28 July -Nearly there! Latest Total.

http://gua-africa.org/

http://www.facebook.com/daveinuk?ref=profile#!/guaafrica?ref=ts 

 

 Emmanuel Jal
Founder of GUA Africa, part of which is
The Emma Academy

Emmanuel Jal was born in Southern Sudan, and spent the early years of his childhood in the midst of its longrunning civil war. At the age of 7, after the death of his mother, he was recruited as a child soldier for the Rebel army (SPLA).

Amazingly, he survived front line action and eventually managed to escape with 300 other "lost boys", enduring a 3 month trek on foot without any supplies to reach safety. One of only a handful to survive the journey, Emmanuel was rescued by Emma McCune, a British Aid Worker, who smuggled him to freedom in Kenya and enrolled him in school for the first time.

Tragically, Emma died shortly afterwards in a car accident. Gradually, after so much sadness and trauma in his life Emmanuel began to find healing through the church and through music.

Some ten years later Emmanuel is now a world famous rap artist with a Number 1 record under his belt. He has performed at Live 8 in Cornwall, supported massive UK groups Faithless and Razorlight and his song Baai featured in the smash hit film Blood Diamond. "War Child", a documentary film telling Emmanuel's life story has recently premiered at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, and his album of the same name is also now on worldwide release.

On 27th June 2008 he performed at Hyde Park at the 90th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela.

Throughout all this, Emmanuel has worked tirelessly with the United Nations, Amnesty International and Oxfam to campaign against the employment of child soldiers and the illegal trade of arms.

His work with GUA Africa remains his overriding passion.

Our mission is to work with individuals, families and communities to help them overcome the effects of war and poverty. Each of our projects focus on providing an education to children and young adults who would otherwise be denied such opportunity. Currently our work is in Kenya and Sudan, however in the future we would like to expand into other areas of Sub-Saharan Africa - working with other experienced partner organisations where ever opportunities arise.

In April 2008 we were granted full UK charity status and later the same year we received our NGO registration in South Sudan.

GUA Africa has been granted 15 acres of land in Leer, West Upper Nile, by the government of South Sudan. Our goal is to build a high quality education centre for the whole community, which is to be called the Emma Academy, as a legacy to Emma McCune who lies in rest in Leer.

The twenty year long Sudanese civil war has meant that schooling in South Sudan today mostly consists of teaching under trees. Many former child soldiers have not found their way back into education, and traditionally only 1 in 5 girls are supported to finish High School.

Back in November 2008 GUA officials agreed with the local Leer community that the Emma Academy project should be split into two phases. The first phase will see the renovation of the existing Leer primary school, which is in desperate need of repair with only two out of four classrooms currently being fit for use. The budget for Phase 1 has been set at $250,000, which includes the construction of 5 extra classrooms.

Due to some fantastic fundraising efforts we have recently been able to replace the collapsed roof and erect a strong perimeter fence around the whole site - essential to keep out roaming livestock. While we continue to fundraise for the new classrooms, work will now continue on refurbishing and repainting the school, plus the construction of the first ever toilet blocks. Each of these improvements will make a massive difference to the welfare of the pupils attending the school.

During the recent trip made by GUA officials in April 2009 more detailed plans were also completed for Phase 2 of the Emma Academy.  This will see the development of a top quality educational academy built on the 15 acres of land given to GUA. The academy will include a secondary school – the first in the area - as well as vocational training, sports, and teacher training facilities. We hope to introduce soil stabilisation technology to the area, which will enable us to make strong, durable building blocks using the local soil and sand. As well as being environmentally friendly, this will also generate income and development opportunities for the community in the years to come.

Survivors of War

GUA Africa currently supports seventeen young people in Nairobi and Uganda who have all survived against unimaginable odds. Some were forced to fight as child soldiers in Southern Sudan, two survived the genocide in Rwanda which claimed the rest of their family, and all have trekked hundreds if not thousands of miles under desperate conditions to seek safety in the UN refugee camp at Kakuma, NW Kenya. Most of them are orphaned, and have no homes they can return to or extended family to support them.

 

GUA has linked each of them with an individual sponsor who pays their school fees, and all of them are studying hard to catch up on the years of education they missed. Because they have missed so much, they are often attending school with children much younger, but they have such a thirst for education that this does not deter them. They know that if they can finish their schooling they stand the best chance of either making a new life for themselves in Kenya or returning to their homeland with the skills to help rebuild their former communities. Several hope to proceed to university, if the financial support is still there. Paying for their education is only part of the story however, and GUA Africa needs your support to pay for their housing, food, clothing and other basic living expenses.

There is no welfare system or free medical care in Kenya, so they are totally dependent on GUA Africa to support them in every way, and if we fail to do so adequately all our and their efforts will have been in vain. With your donations we are able to rent a house for them in a safe part of Nairobi, from where they are able to travel to school, college or university. Our aim is to guide them into young adulthood not just through education but by helping them acquire the life skills needed to forge new relationships and find means of supporting themselves.

Kariobangi

Ever imagined living in a 6ft x 8ft home made of old metal, cardboard and mud, without a bed, electricity, water or a toilet? You have to go out to get water, and the nearest toilet is shared among around 100 people. You have to pay for both. Those who cannot afford toilet costs wait until dark to use the open sewer or open space. A tin filled with kerosene and a piece of cloth for a wick acts as a lamp at night.

This is the glaring reality for approximately 600,000 people living in Kariobangi and Mathare Valley, which is one of the largest slum areas in Nairobi with over 80% of its' population living below the Kenyan poverty line. In addition, it is estimated that one in every three adults in this region is HIV positive and because of the deprivation their life expectancy once diagnosed is less than 5 years.

It is here that a local Christian organisation named Mathare Community Outreach has established Kariobangi School and Orphanage, which 400 local children now attend. Many are orphaned and most have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. The school was also caught in the midst of the post-election violence in January 2008, which caused many families to flee the area and others to take refuge within the compound.

Despite this, Kariobangi School is a thriving happy place staffed by an enthusiastic, dedicated team of teachers and carers. GUA Africa is proud to have entered into a partnership with the school in a bid to provide individual sponsors for up to 50 of its' children.

With the help of NGOs like the World Food Organisation it is helping fight malnutrition and promote health education, and provides a basic but loving home for those with no-one else to care for them.

12 JULY -  TOILET BLOCKS ARE FINISHED

BREAKING NEWS: The 3 toilet blocks at the Leer Primary School are now finished!! These are the first ever at the school, a big thank you goes out to everyone involved in the fundraising for them.

 

Photographs posted on Facebook on 12 July 2010

20 JULY - Various up-dates

Hi David,

The blog is great! Please feel free to announce when you have an update on there via our facebook page. Here is this months on the Emma Academy project for you:- 

As of this week the Leer Primary School has their first ever functioning public toilets available for use thanks to Gua Africa. The construction has taken longer than expected due to the recent Sudanese national and local elections but we are pleased to say that the three toilet blocks are now fully complete. An official handing over ceremony has taken place where our building contractors AMA handed over the keys to our Gua Sudan official John Mayiel, and then he handed the keys over to the school caretakers and management. 

As you can see from the photos the toilets are already blending into the back ground of the school, and according to John the children rushed up to him with joy and were celebrating with him when it was announced to them all that the toilets had been finished and were available for use.

Fundraising for the 5 classrooms has been progressing well in recent weeks, we now have only $18,106 / £11,900 left to raise. The end is starting to feel close now! In the past few weeks an important decision has been reached regarding the building of the classrooms, in response to changed circumstances on the ground in Leer. Another international NGO has offered to build additional classrooms in Government run schools, and as a result Leer Primary is to benefit from at least 3 additional classrooms. Meanwhile, the other primary school in Leer, named Mary John, has no permanent buildings at all and its' pupils are being taught under the trees (please see photos).  We already have a good relationship with Mary John as we constructed a bore hole for them during our last visit, so after lengthy consultations with the management of both schools, and the Local Education Director, we have decided that our five classroom block will now be located at Mary John.

We feel very confident that this is the right decision for the whole community, as it will maximise the effect the classrooms will have on the children of Leer. As we look in future to establishing the first independent Secondary school in Leer, it is important that we help develop each of the primary schools whose pupils will feed through to us. This decision is hot off the press; we will be updating all our press, website, facebook, over the next few days.  

If you or any of your members have any questions about this decision please feel free to ask and we will be happy to answer them for you. I have attached some photos of the Mary John school, which is right in the heart of Leer town, so your members can get a feel for the standard of the facilities there. 

Many thanks for your continued support,

--
Kate Gumm
Gua Africa

Emmanuel Jal giving a talk at Mary John

Assembly time

Carrying their chairs to class

 Blackboard rests up against a tree

 Crowded classes

 No walls between classes

20 JULY - Financial News!

GUA Africa BIG NEWS!! The fundraising total for Phase 1 of the Emma Academy Project is now at $201,894!! We have broken the $200k mark :-) Emmanuel Jal is close to eating properly again, thank you for all your support along the way.