Swaziland: Help Educate 50 Orphans

We are so delighted that our micro-project has generated almost $1700 dollars towards the costs of education in our community.  We are fully aware that our children have many advantages that tens of thousands of other orphaned children do not, but this is our purpose for existence: to rescue those who have been stripped of everything and give them hope and a future.  This micro-project was to assist in the feeding and the clothing of our students.  In this part of the world all students are required to wear school uniforms in order to equalize everyone in the school as some may have shoes and socks while others may not.  The Government therefore require that all students wear school uniforms to give every child the dignity and identity of where they belong in school.  We have attempted to economize by using a young man to sew the simple part of the uniforms for us like the school skirts for girls and school shirts for both genders. School shoes, sweaters (or jerseys as they are called here) have to be standardized and cannot easily be made for students.  

Schools begin each day at 8:00 am and the day is long, finishing at 4:00 PM each day.  This means that a mid-morning snack and a good lunch is needed to sustain them through their study hours, sports and other activities.  This micro-project has enabled us to maintain a reasonable provision to sustain them for the whole day.  Some children who have health challenges are required to eat some special foods to enhance their immune systems and this has also been of major importance.  The micro-project did not reach the full projected target which was disappointing, so we choose to cut the school pack for each child.  We have been able to use what has been given by visitors who have stopped into the Centre over the summer months so the students have had the basic pencils, pens, notebooks, erasers and rulers in this time period.  Other things like math set and crayons they have had to share with the entire class. We were unable to reach the costs of physical development kits.

We want to thank each and every donor who invested in the lives of these children through this micro-project and we hope in months to come you will be willing to assist for the next school year which begins at the end of January 2015.