posted 04 February 2002 06:21 PM            

[This message has been edited by Don (edited 06 February 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Admin5 (edited 18 April 2002).]

posted 05 March 2002 09:33 PM              

Thank you for your help.

posted 10 March 2002 05:37 PM              

I look forward to hearing from you

posted 11 March 2002 08:12 PM              

I am a mature student (BA Ed year 3) at the University of Reading. 18 months ago I set up a school link between a rural primary school in Kenya and a 'small town' primary school in England.

The school in Kenya, is located in a village called Chura about 30 Km from Nairobi. The 250 pupil school has with the exception of books and material that I took with me on my first visit almost no resources. My contacts to the school and the 'Parents Association' are well established and reliable - my mother -in -law lives in the same village!

I am extremely keen to offer this school, and thus the community, as much support as possible. If the school is likely to fall within the parameters that you are working within I would be very pleased to supply you with whatever details you may require.

In the hope that Chura primary school will also be able to benefit from the assistance of your NGO.

Regards, Mike

posted 18 April 2002 10:56 AM              

The address is
SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College
PMB, Comm. 6
Tema, Ghana

posted 20 April 2002 11:25 AM            

We raised funds last year and sent out resources to the school but it is still in need of a lot of help and assistance. I would be very grateful to you if you could help Ivan and the school by sending the box of resources you have mentioned above.

Thanks for your time in dealing with this matter. I look forward to and appreciate your assistance.

posted 24 April 2002 11:07 PM              

I am helping to lead an expedition to Malawi this summer involving 12 girls from
two schools in Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. One of our objectives is to
assist two primary schools in the Lower Shire area of Malawi. We have
established links with a project worker there and below I have given an
extract from a recent e-mail he sent me when I asked him what could the team
take with them that would assist the schools (we already have a range of
musical instruments and some other items to take, that have been donated for
this purpose):

"Apologies for the delays. We have not really made much progress
in establishing what may be needed by the schools and wildlife
club around Mwabvi. One of the difficulties is that the kids and their
teachers live in a complete backwater and have no idea what is 'out
there', what they could do with it etc. Once 'something' arrived they
would certainly put it to good use. We have tried various lines of
enquiry without raising too many hopes and now have some idea of
what would be useful but we were hoping to get more info from
them."

"The schools are seriously ill equipped and even the basic
resources that one might expect in rural Africa are unavailable. The
Canadian Gov is in the process of distributing text books but when
these will arrive around Mwabvi is anyone's guess - two of the areas
have not seen any gov official except Parks staff for many years. I
spent an hour or so wandering around one of the schools last week
and only 50% of the classrooms have desks, the windows are
broken (probably to increase ventilation) and there is no evidence
other than a matt black painted wall that it is a place of learning.
Parts of the roof are missing and it is all pretty sorry."

"Teachers have chalk and work to the national curriculum but that is
about it. There are no posters or teaching aids whatsoever, no art
materials and no games, music or handicraft equipment and
materials. Pens, pencils, paper etc are in very short supply, if at all
available. However, what the schools lack in basic equipment is
compensated for by a great deal of innovation."

"I will leave it to you to imagine setting up a school 'from scratch' in
a rural African setting and the basic (cheap) requirements that you
and your team would consider necessary for 6 to 12+ year olds.
However, a note of caution - things go missing and people in
positions of authority will 'borrow' anything they want if it is valuable
or attractive to them. The classrooms do not lock and secure
storage is only really available in teachers houses."

"My own feelings are that, conservation and the three Rs aside, the
children (and the wider community) would greatly benefit from
practical information and perhaps basic start up materials -
vegetable seeds for a school garden, information on how to keep
rabbits, bees, poultry, preserve food etc and information on basic
handicrafts - coiling pots, basketry etc."

"Very few of the children will ever get a secondary education
because their parents cannot afford it and the schools are too far
away, so any support for developing life skills will be of great
importance."

"I hope that this will go some way to helping you put together what
you may wish to ship and apologise that it is sparse on actual
needs from this end."

Otherwise, hope the planning is going well and the fitness regime
is paying dividends!

Salaams, Richard

I note that you are able to, or plan soon to, provide resource packs to take
to schools, that take up about the same space as a Kelloggs Cornflakes box.
I wonder if you would regard our expedition as a deserving cause, and be
able to provide two resource packs, one each for the two schools? The
girls, age 16-18, will spend four weeks in Malawi, including a week with the
schools and a week with the children's wildlife club, which is linked to the
schools. They will also spend about 8 days climbing the Mulanje Massive,
all arranged with the help of World Challenge Expeditions.

If you are able to assist with resources for these two very deprived schools
in the southern most part of Malawi, it would be very much appreciated. My
contact details are:

posted 29 April 2002 06:20 PM            

I received the materials for Ivan's school in Cameroon. Thanks for all the help, I am sure he will be really pleased when I forward them. It will take some time for them to arrive but they will be posted over the few days.

All the best for now and thanks once again.

posted 13 May 2002 11:30 PM              

Supplies have arrived safely and will soon be on their way to the teachers and children.

Thank you

Alan

posted 05 June 2002 03:32 PM              

I am representing a group connected with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland involved in sending containers of basic educational material to our Partner Church in Malawi. The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP)runs over 500 primary schools in the Northern Region of Malawi alone (and many hundreds more country wide). CCAP works closely with other Church and Government schools to provide the best education possible given the shortage of basic resources.

We would be delighted if we could get materials for these schools for shipping to our partner. Our priority is for stationary, dictionaries, readers and children's reference books. We can also use teacher's resouces.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Yours sincerely,

Richard C Kerr
For PCI Container Group
15 University Avenue
Belfast BT7 1GX

posted 24 June 2002 02:47 PM              

quote:

---

Originally posted by Don:
To begin : I discovered this medium of expression tonight and was impressed by all those who have contributed. I am basically a Primary 6 teacher that wears many hats. As a managing director of a large NGO we aim to assist children in education overseas through both UNESCO and UN. We have been extremely successful in our aims and are fortunate enough to find ourselves in a situation whereby we can assist a greater demand than we are called on for. It would be to our delight if we could help any teacher who knows of schools abroad needing help.
To clarify the situation further we have high value low weight commodities..... posters/teachers notes and resource material. A Family sized Kelloggs Cornflakes Box will hold approximately £500 of new resources weighing about 5Kg.( I should really have gone to the kitchen to check the number of lls and ggs in Kelloggs) This would tend to be about the size of package we send though there may be exceptions if several schools are involved. ( we do not send all the way!!)
What do we demand !!!!!!!
Well......... a promise that no item we send will ever be used in a UK or developed country school, that a pen picture ( with details) be forwarded to us of the intended school so that we can ensure the package is about right and lastly that a couple of photographs of the items in situ be sent.
delivery to where ever you are can be finalised later.
Our website is www.unesco.co.uk
and my e-mail
don@unesco.co.uk
I will respond to all who reply but please be patient.
Don
Director
UNESCO Youth Ambassador

[This message has been edited by Don (edited 06 February 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Admin5 (edited 18 April 2002).]

---

Dear Don,
We would very much like to help with ' pink ballet slippers'
Regards Marie

posted 09 September 2002 11:39 PM              

Thanks again for your support

posted 10 September 2002 09:05 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by pauline:
Hi Don,
I have just returned from Romania, posters and books safely delivered.
The children from my school have been writing to the Romanian school via e-mail.Unfortunately,the modem of the school in Romania has broken, is there any help available to replace it?

Thanks again for your support

Pauline

---

No doubt we will be able to help Pauline.... please e-mail me at don@unesco.co.uk I have somehow mislaid your contact details.

Take care

posted 02 October 2002 12:29 AM              

I wonder if you could possibly assist a group of students in Trinidad who give up their time to assist some of our schools that are not as affluent. We especially need resources on the environment. I will be in touch direct as well.

Hope you can assist us Don.

Thank you

posted 08 October 2002 10:07 PM              

Thank you..... the supplies for Trinidad have arrived safely.

posted 18 October 2002 06:18 PM              

All supplies have arrived safely in the four countries and are now with the teachers and their pupils. Photographs to follow.
Many thanks again.

posted 20 November 2002 06:44 AM              

Thank you for your help

posted 10 January 2003 10:11 PM              

If they might be of use please contact me on my mobile 07720 420500 or e-mail at don@unesco.co.uk

posted 04 February 2003 06:06 PM              

We are a Christian organisation assisting schools in numerous countries including Armenia, Serbia and Macedonia. The schools have very little so anything that you can help us with would be much appreciated.

I sincerely hope you can assist us.

posted 20 February 2003 02:24 PM              

Thank you so much - all of the items we wished for and you promised have arrived with us safely. They will be in Romania in a few weeks and then we send to you some photographs.

Every best wish and our sincere thanks.