Songimvelo Horseback Safaris are keen to give their support to the African community in their area and one way to do this is to help provide materials for a nearby school. The school is called Hambanatsi (meaning ‘Come with Us’ in Swazi), and attempts to educate around 200 pupils.

While the school has very enthusiastic teachers who work tirelessly to support the school and children, often without pay, the actual facilities available are very poor, with a real lack of funding and materials.

There are only four classrooms at the school, of which only two have chairs and tables. The other two have broken windows, and the children have to sit on a dirty concrete floor to take part in lessons. There are no blackboards or teaching implements to help educate the children and simple items like pens / pencils / paper are practically non existent.

The school educates children between 4 and a half to 13 years old. Because of the lack of facilities the teachers have to run classes with all different ages in, making any such education very difficult. Any child with learning difficulties is often condemned to a lack of education, as the teachers find it impossible to cope with full classrooms and one to one care.

The school does request fees for each child that attends. However in the community the mortality rate is very high, this often leaves a child without both parents before their 7th birthday. When this is the case the school will still allow the child to attend in a valiant attempt to continue their education. However the more children that cannot pay school fees means less budget for any essential items.

The school buildings are in a dreadful state of repair, quite simply any money available goes towards feeding the children, and their play area is overgrown and unusable. There is no money for any type of Physical Education, and often the children play in the road. Their kitchen, where they supply meals everyday for all the children, is quite simply a small shed with a wood fire, and they had to beg for funds to build this.

Songimvelo Horse Safaris are very keen to support the school and provide any sort of help that they can. These children want to come to school, they enjoy wearing their school uniform (for those that can afford it), they enjoy being part of something and for some of them going to school each day is their last link to a normal life.

When Songimvelo Horse Safaris met with the school and asked how they could help, the school came up with a very simple wish list of items that would make an immediate difference. In turn we are asking all the guests that visit the safari to bring with them any of these items so that they can be donated to the school at the end of the safari.

On the last Sunday of the safari you will enjoy a glimpse of how Swazi people used to live and you will then get to see how they live now. Part of that experience will be visiting the school in the morning, talking to the teachers and seeing the children in their environment. After this you will be able to present to the Head Master any gifts for the school. We hope that over a period of time we will be able to track how these gifts make an impact on the children’s lives and help arm them with education for the future.

If possible please can we ask you to bring with you (either from donations from the office / friends / family) any of the following. Hopefully it won’t take up much room in your bags and your simple effort will have an immediate effect:

• Pencils / Pens / Crayons / Paints & Brushes
• Paper / Coloring Books / Reading Books
• Files - A4 size for the children to store their work
• Dictionaries - English
• Atlas’s
• ANY sports equipment, be it footballs, kit (any size) netballs, etc.
• Portable Radios – the schools need to be able to play learning cassettes and tune in to Radio Schools for extra learning programs.

Anything that you can do to help the school, will be greatly appreciated.

This is an area very new to tourism. On the Assam Ride we have been fortunate to be granted permission to visit this forest area on horseback and in return, we are supporting the local schools.

In The Saddle donates £30 per visitor to a fund which is spent on long term projects that benefit the community.

The money contributed so far is being spent directly on the school. Initially, books, footballs and teaching materials were provided, then cupboards to store these. Most recently funds provided by In The Saddle have been used to build a toilet for the school.

Our current project is to dig a tubewell for at least one village which would also supply the school. The money will also be used to improve sanitation and toilets as well as provide basic teaching materials to aid learning.

All In The Saddle riders have the option to visit the school when in the rain forest. We feel this is an important part of the holiday and helps to strengthen the relationship between visitors and locals. During the visit there is an opportunity to share something of your background and where you come from.

Our ground handlers in Argentina, Lihue Expeditions launch a new charity project to celebrate their 20th Anniversary.

In August they took the first step by financing a teaching workshop for country schoolteachers. The workshop had three modules and will last until October. The project is carried out by Fundación Ruta 40 (www.fundacionruta40.org.ar). Miriam Dahir of Clave Renglón (http://www.claverenglon.com.ar/) is doing the training in the school in La Poma (north of Cachi, in Salta) in this workshop for 25 teachers from the surrounding countryside.

The next challenge is to finance the installation of an organic community kitchen garden for a school in the Misiones jungle. If the chief of the Guarani community is in agreement, and if the Fundación Huerta Niño considers that the project is feasible after evaluating the school and community involved, then they will set out to raise the USD 5,500 necessary to carry it out. The one-year project will aim to establish a self-sustaining garden that will improve the diets of the 150 students who attend classes at the school. A better nutrition will bring better results in their studies and open the door to a more promising future for them and others, as they will pass their knowledge on to their community. If for some reason the project is not feasible at this school, Lihue and Fundación Huerta Niño will find another school at which to set up the garden, which will become another of the more than 40 such gardens successfully established by the Foundation thus far. So they are already beginning to raise funds.

Anyone who would like to help can contact www.mihuerta.org.ar and make a donation with a “Uniendo Cabos” tag. Huerta Niño will identify the funds and assign them to the project that Lihue are sponsoring with everybody’s help.

People who visit Argentina can also donate funds to this project and you will receive further details on your arrival in Buenos Aires.