News from Swaziland Schools Projects Charity

Welcome to our May news, which focusses on our work at Salakutjelwa and our bursary scheme.

Readers will remember that Johannes, one of the SSP team in Swaziland, found a community at Salakutjelwa where the young children, many of whom were orphaned or vulnerable, were being looked after by local women. They cooked for them under a tree and also ran a sort of informal playgroup out in the open. When the clean water ran out, the children had to share water with cattle and supplement their food with berries.

With the toilets completed, the classrooms were the next part of the project and these photos show great progress being made.

Many thanks to those donors who ask that their donation be used to fund the school fees of orphans and vulnerable children at secondary school. You may recall that although primary education is free, secondary education is not and it costs about £400 per pupil per year. Hence many children do not go onto secondary education.

When Jack Dobson passed away, it was inevitable that donations to his scheme would reduce. The administration of the bursary scheme was taken over by The Swaziland Charitable Trust (SCT) and SSP works closely with SCT.

We have not taken on any new students since Jack’s passing so that income for bursaries can cover the students that we support. We now fund half the fees of 55 children and the cost this year will be about £10,000.

SSP wants to move towards a position where donations pay the full school fees plus other essential costs such as uniform, food and transport. In this way, the child will have a much greater chance of succeeding at school. SSP will be in touch about these changes with those who donate specifically for bursaries in the next few months.

Thank you to everyone who supports SSP and in particular this month to who who supported our fabulous auction in April, where we raised about £3500 to support our work in Swaziland.

May 2019