Larkswood School sponsor a Kwazulu orphan's education

I was invited to an assembly at Larkswood Primary School, South Chingford earlier this month (May). Whilst there I was presented with a cheque to pay for the schooling and uniform for the coming year for 5 year old Sibongile Thango, a little girl I met at the Thandukuphila Centre on my trip to South Africa earlier this year.

Sibongile's parents died when she was two years old and she now lives with her grandmother and her four older siblings. Her grandmother has no way of paying for the education of these children and is extremely grateful for the support she is receiving. In January Sibongile will attend the same school as Qiniso Msweli, the eight year old girl sponsored by Chase Lane School, South Chingford, this means when I return to South Africa, hopefully next April, I will be able to visit both children at the same time in their school.

I think there are great benefits to be had in fostering communication links between the school in Africa and the schools here in South Chingford who are sponsoring these two children. The children can write letters or draw pictures which I will take out to S. Africa with me and hopefully bring some back in return. The children at Larkswood Primary school who I spoke to were very interested to hear about the children in Kwazulu and their lives and they asked some very interesting and appropriate questions, especially so as they were only six and seven years old.