A blog site for a small charitable group in the UK collecting and distributing donations to two children's organisations in Africa. One of the Trustees is David Yates - http://dave-davestravels.blogspot.com/
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.
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!
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.
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.
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)
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 11th 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”.
