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Helping Africa |
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Lesley's trip to Zimbabwe, June 2008"As the latest elections in Zimbabwe grew near I felt that I should go back again, to see what I could do in this sad country, to give support to Roseanna and her community. Against advice from friends and family, I went to Zimbabwe for two weeks at the beginning of June."
"The trip was emotional, and every day saw fresh tears. But the visit to Roseanna's village was the most heartbreaking. As my happy friend, always smiling, drew near, I saw how thin she had become and how utterly hopeless she looked. When she saw me, she clung to me and could not stop crying. I brought food with me, clothes, and toys for the children. They were overcome - all they had to eat that day in the homestead was a box of guavas, and they had no idea where they would get their next meal."
"In between visits to Roseanna, I travelled widely in the area. I talked to many people and heard stories of intimidation and violence. I gritted my teeth through the roadblocks and had a few close encounters with war veterans. I have seen completely empty supermarket shelves and the queues for food and money. On the other side of the coin, I found an inspirational orphanage full of happy children, sheltered (as best they could be) from the sadness by a wonderful man called Lucien, who runs the orphanage. It was such a privilege to meet Lucien and I hope that, together, we can begin to make a difference."
Her story was featured in the Huddersfield Examiner and you can read the feature online here.
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New roofs at Whitewater school thanks to donations & sponsorship raised through Little Herbal |
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Jan ran the 25th Snowdonia Marathon, 2007Our very own Jan ran the Snowdonia Marathon on Saturday 27th October to raise funds for the library at Whitewater Primary School in Matopos.
Thanks to many generous sponsors he raised over £1,200!
This race, supported by the National Trust, is the toughest road marathon in the UK as it climbs some 1,800ft over the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Jan is collecting the sponsorship as every penny will go directly to the school.
Over the years Little Herbal has actively supported various schemes at the school and surrounding community. The school needs to complete the construction of the library and then to stock it with books and other materials. See picture below.
By running the race Jan, who has two boys of his own, intends that all funds raised will help the children in Matopos.
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Picture below shows new school buildings at Whitewater Junior School and Sharon & Phil with headmaster Mr. Bhebe. |
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Donation by "This Way Up", regional heat winners of the UK Young Enterprise 2007 competitionNot only did the This Way Up team, from Dumfries High School, win the local Scottish heat of the UK "Young Enterprise" 2007 competition, but they also donated all of their proceeds to help with a school building project in southern Africa.
Photograph shows Lesley Robinson with student Caroline Rae holding the donation cheque on the occasion of the competition in Dumfires, April 2007.
Read Lesley's account of the full story below including message from the headmaster of Whitewater school which gratefully received the funds.
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A telephone call out of the blue....
Last year, out of the blue, I received a telephone call from Jan Kilmurry-Webley, a teacher at Dumfries High School. She explained to me that the school were taking part in the Young Enterprise scheme and wanted to donate the profits from their business to a specific project (at this point still to be decided on) in Zimbabwe.
After careful consideration with Sharon Stead, the girl I work with on our fund raising projects in Zimbabwe, we decided to donate any money raised to building a roof on the library building at Whitewater Primary School in Matopos, Zimbabwe. I think that Mr Bhebe, their wonderful headmaster, had long ago given up any ideas of completing this building due to lack of funds.
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The Young Enterprise scheme
Young Enterprise is a national education charity founded in 1963 to forge links between schools and industry. Its mission is to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise It is an exciting, hands-on business experience for young people. Young Enterprise is not a business game but a real business experience over a full academic year. Through the programme students learn how a company functions, developing new skills such as working in a team, leadership, design, marketing, IT, making presentations, planning, financial control...etc. Advisers from industry are appointed to each school/company, and there is a Link Teacher for every school. Each company has to come up with a product or service - previous examples include t-shirts, calendars, jewellery,etc.
There are regional finals in April, Scottish/English finals in June and national finals in the summer. Then European finals. More information can be found at the Young Enterprise web site.
The Dumfries High School company this year was called This Way Up and they decided early on in their venture that they wanted to appeal to the ethical consumer - a growth market. They decided to sell trees and persuaded the Scottish Forestry Commission to ‘lend’ them a piece of land where they would plant the trees. They sold the trees through the internet globally, so people in New York could, for example, buy a tree to be planted in Scotland and they would then be sent a package, including photographs. This information was then also put on the website.
2 for the price of 1!
This Way Up also sold their trees locally at markets and Christmas Fairs. However, they were not just selling trees. They wanted to be responsible and had no intention of keeping the profit for their own personal gain: they felt that they owed something to society and so, by buying one of their trees, the benefit was two-fold:
1. You would be helping to save our planet
AND
2. You would be helping to build a roof on the library at Whitewater Primary School in Zimbabwe (and hopefully have enough left over to stock it with some books!).
Each tree was beautifully labelled with an explanation of the project. Not only would you be helping to save the planet, you would actually be doing something really good to help people who really need it. 2 for the price of 1! In addition, also raising awareness of the tremendous hardships and problems in Zimbabwe.
Jan and I thought that a conservative estimate of profits would be around £500 (a huge amount of money to the kids in Zimbabwe). |
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Competition day
Glyn and I went up to Dumfries for the regional finals in April this year and met the most fantastic bunch of kids who were running this project. |
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I have seldom been as impressed with anyone in my life as I was with these selfless, hardworking and enthusiastic youngsters. They were competing with 6 other schools and the standards were all extremely high.
But the kids from This Way Up had something the others didn’t - I believe they were running this project, not only as a business, but also from their hearts (the way I try to run Little Herbal).
They wanted to make a profit and they wanted to win, but most of all they wanted to help the kids in Zimbabwe and this came across loud and clear.
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| Not only did they make the most profit but they also won the 'Overall Winners' title and will now go on to compete in Glasgow next month - Europe here we come! |
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And a cheque for £1500 went directly out to Sharon in Zimbabwe to pay for the new school library roof, which will benefit hundreds of Zimbabwean children.
This Way Up have achieved so much, not only for themselves and future generations in this country with the planting of their trees, but also for the children of Zimbabwe.
Their most generous gift, which has come out of all their magnificent hard work, will make the most enormous difference to these African children who have nothing and who expect nothing because that has been their life. |
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In a world where there are so many who have so little, this brings a message of hope for the future of the human race. I thank the boys and girls who formed This Way Up from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all the children of Whitewater Primary School in Zimbabwe who will soon be able to use their newly built library.
Glyn and I felt so proud to have been able to share This Way Up's evening of success and we will be in Glasgow to support them in June.
Lesley Robinson, May 2007
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The response from Africa
"In a continent where education is considered a privilege and not a right, we are finding an amazing ethos amongst our people to educate their children against all costs. Your help in improving and providing these facilities is overwhelming and for this, our community in Matobo Hills is grateful beyond anyone's comprehension."
- Sharon Stead, Camp Amalinda, Matobo
"It is with open arms that I welcome this gift. We see it as an uphill struggle to give our children better than we had in our years. Thanks to people out there who care, we are succeeding. I should like to quote from our school motto - 'Success our goal. God our guide'. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
- Mr Bhebe - Headmaster of Whitewater Primary School, Matobo Hills
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