The Gutjwa Project – helping children in real need

A Christmas letter from a globe-trotting pair of New Zealander motorcyclists we’ve known for many years, who’ve covered over 160,000 miles visiting 50+ countries over the past decade, spurred me into action

While Wayne has been working as a project engineer in South Africa, Lorraine has become embroiled in helping a black township school, called Gutjwa.

It’s the usual desperate story, all too common throughout Africa – half the pupils are AIDS orphans, most subsist on the one mealie-porridge lunch the school has been able to produce reasonably reliably since a few concrete blocks were erected to keep the seasonal down-pours off the kitchen fire; there are many other kids simply unable to put the necessary shirts on their backs to be able to attend school in the first place. And those that do go face an appalling lack of scholastic resources – too few text books, a shortage of writing paper, even of pencils.

Yet the school is not without hope – the head-mistress is a resourceful, clever and totally committed inspiration, who daily creates miracles out of almost nothing. The kids are hungry, but not only for food, also for knowledge. And there’s Lorraine Hird, a typical ‘can-do’ Kiwi, who stands no nonsense in getting things sorted.

It’s this microcosm of the problems of Africa we’ve committed to assist, by raising funds to provide fresh running water, proper toilet facilities, green solar-power to provide the school with the currently all too-expensive electricity to run the kindly already-donated computers, a real kitchen, food for mal-nourished children, school-clothing to enable more kids to attend, and books, paper and pencils to resource the curriculum properly.

And it’s THIS project we’ve decided to support because we know, respect and implicitly trust Lorraine. Every penny we raise goes direct to her and then, via her own hands, direct to the school’s projects. There is simply no wastage, no fees, no kick-backs. And you’re very welcome to go to Kabokweni Township, on the edge of the Kruger National Park, to Gutjwa School, and see for yourself where your money is going – it really is that direct a link.

If you’d like to read further about Gutjwa School and what Lorraine and her team are working on, look up www.gutjwa-appeal.org