26 April 2011

Warm greetings once again from Zambia, where the rains have ended and night temperatures are dropping. Many of our children go down with malaria during the rains, so it will be good to see less of this over the next few months.

Playground

Could you picture a child who has never been on a swing before? It was quite a day when we opened our new playground two weeks ago. Hawkes Bay volunteers Thomas Duxfield and Stephen Willis had never built such a playground before, but with admirable kiwi ingenuity they completed it within two months, and within budget.

New Classroom Block

Passers-by have concluded that this new building must be a house for the Raymonds, as they cannot imagine that a mere classroom block could look so fine! Recent generous donations have kept this project going, and we should have one room ready for occupation soon after the beginning of term in May. Our thanks go to MTN Internet Zambia for donating sufficient funds to purchase the remaining new desks required for this room.

Reading programme

Alison Raymond has worked hard with teachers and pupils on the reading programme. ‘Rome was not built in a day’, but we are seeing steady improvements. We are very grateful to Ellen Henderson, a visitor from the Seattle, USA, and also to Anne Whittemore, who have both committed a morning per week to help with this.

Rotary Club of Canberra

We are also grateful to Paul Street and the Rotary Club of Canberra for donating to a total of A$3,500 from the sale of the Africa Calendars. I have been invited to be a guest speaker at the Rotary District Conference in Canberra over the weekend of 21–23 October. After the conference I expect to spend a week in New Zealand, and look forward to sharing about our work with supporters there. Please contact me if you would like to arrange a meeting.

—Matthew F. Raymond, CHAIRMAN