Bingo!

Thanks to Val ( in the pink) an old school friend who was our bingo caller for the night.This proved to be a great money spinner and added greatly to the overall takings on the night. You can also see Bev ( pink sunburnt arm!) who never fails to support our events. Her daughter Holly hopes to go over to the school in 2010 to help out for a few weeks. If anyone else is interested in doing some volunteering at the school drop us an email.

Casino and supper night

We held a very successful Casino and Supper Night last night.The weather was incredibly kind to us and everyone seemed to have great fun. Thanks to all who supported us.Your generous donations will help further our work in Zambia. The picture shows my mum and a group of her friends enjoying the evening.

Computers

We have just received photos of the new computer room .It is incredible to think how far this school has developed over the years.

News from Bedford

Great news from Simon Lowe again. He has received another £100 after a talk he gave to a local rotary club. We will now be asking Rev Alick Malama to choose some more sports equipment for the school. It is great to think how all this is enriching the lives of the children.
Many thanks to Simon and the Rotary members.

Paella Party

We held a Paella Party to raise funds and we were entertained by Radyr High School big band.This certainly hepled the night go with a swing.They were brilliant. The photo shows,Jodie,Steve and Ceri cooking their hearts out.

Carols by Candlelight

For the last two years we have held a Carols by Candlelight evening to raise funds. We have been lucky enough to have members of the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir to lead the singing. The photo shows the 12 Days of Christmas with actions!!! Hopefully we will be holding another one this Christmas and we will post details on the blog.

Hog Roast 2007

We held a very successful Hog Roast in June 2007 to raise funds for Teacher Aid. People that joined in this event were treated to a scrumptious feast.The weather was very kind to us that night. The photo shows Maggie, the founder member of Teacher Aid with Coxy and Jayne serving up the meat. The hog was kindly donated to us by David Latte.

Feeding the children

When we went to visit the school we were told that their cooking pot was broken so they had been unable to feed the children as they used to do.This photo shows Selly buying a new pot and 100 plastic bowls with money from our 25th wedding anniversary.We had asked for people to give us money rather than presents and it enabled us to purchase a great deal of items for the school. Many of the children rely on school to provide them with one meal a day as their families are unable to afford food for them.

Assembly

This photo shows the pupils outisde for assembly.You can see the unfinished classroom in the background. We have now been able to complete this classroom with the money raised from several different functions over the last few years.You can also see the container which was sent over from UK full to the brim with equipment gathered from Cardiff schools. Now that the community hall has been completed the pupils have assembly indoors during the Winter months.

100 Club

We run a very successful 100 club which pays the salary of one of the teachers at the school. If you would like to become a member of the club please email us and we can send you more details. We would like to thank the last two winners of the monthly prize draw, Carol Bernstein and Bev Dwyer, who asked us to put their winnings straight back into the fund. Your generosity will make a difference to the education of the pupils at The Good Samaritan School.

How to leave comments

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Thanks to Dr Simon Lowe

We are delighted that our old school friend Simon Lowe has arranged a shipment of sports equipment via Tools With A Mission in Ipswich. Two large boxes will be making their way to Lusaka and should arrive in August. They contain:
2 x 15 sets of football socks, 9 footballs,1 volleyball,1 basketball, 4 tubes of tennis balls,3 chess sets, 2 ball pumps, football kit, boots and trainers. We just cannot imagine how excited the pupils will be to receive all of this. Rev.Alick Malama will ensure that not only do they go to the Good Samaritan School but also the other schools that he is linked with in Zambia.
Thank you so much Simon. We really appreciate all your efforts.

Casino and Supper June 27th at 7p.m.

If you haven't told us yet that you intend coming along to the next fundraiser on June 27th please email us. It should be a fun night and fingers crossed we will get some nice weather!

Computers

A few months ago we sent a dozen computers which were no longer of use to a school in Bridgend over to the school. Alan Holland celebrated his 50th birthday and asked for donations to Teacher Aid rather than presents.He raised over £2,000 and this money was used to create a computer room for the pupils which will also be used by members of the local community. We have also paid for the school to have internet access and we are looking forward to them going online and having webcam contact with pupils in the UK.We already have many school interested in forming links with the school and we are sure the whole project will be a huge success.If you want to get involved with this project us then send an email and we will see what we can do.

Football Goals

Alex Vaughan ran a half marathon and arranged a fun run at his school in Knowsley.The proceeds went towards buying sports equipment, in particular goal posts, for the school.The boys must have been thrilled!

Community Hall

We managed to obtain a grant from The Kitchen Table Trust to build a community hall on the school site. We are very grateful for their £5,000 contribution towards the building costs. One of the 100 club members Stella Turner celebrated her 50th birthday and asked for donations to the school instead of presents and her money went towards buying furniture for the hall. Many thanks Stella!

Shoes

We were thrilled that pupils in Radyr Comprehensive raised money to buy school shoes for some of the pupils at the school.They needed these so that they could go to high school and they could not afford to buy them. Thanks must go to Mrs Ceri Wilson for arranging these fundraising activities.
Also we must thank pupils at Llanishen High school for providing funds to buy a digital camera for the school.This means that we can keep the photos coming.

Chicken Business

Teacher Aid provided a chicken run and recently Rev Alick bought 500 chicks to start the chicken business. We hope that this will help the school to raise money in the future. We are very grateful to Rob Thomas who raised money by selling eggs from his own chickens to pay towards this venture.

Netball Team

These are the girls in their new gear.I can tell you they were incredible at netball and they made me play too!!!

The teams

This is the proud football team.We also bought them their first football.Up until then they could only play against teams that had a ball.

Lovely photo

This is one of our favourite photos.Gareth was thrilled to meet these two delightful sisters .

Buying kit.

This is our shopping trip to buy football kit for the boys and netball kit for the girls. They were so thrilled to receive these gifts! The whole school went out to watch the teams playing in their new clothes. Very soon a shipment of sports kit will be sent from Bedfordshire and it will arrive at the end of the Summer.Dr Simon Lowe has kindly arranged this for Teacher Aid.

The Library

This is the library at the school.All the books you see were from Llanishen High School and Llysfaen Primary School. Selly said that this is one of the best school libraries in Lusaka.She is so proud of it and the children love to use it.

Water Pump

This is the water pump in the school grounds.It was paid for by Teacher Aid and now provides clean water not just for the pupils but also all the people living in the local community.

This is what the classrooms look like now.The children now sit at desks which were sent to Lusaka from Cardiff.They were taken from a school that was closing down and travelled all the way in a container which is now used at the school for storage.

Some photos of the school

Here are some of the photos that we took when we visited the school:
This is the mango tree where Selly started the school.This was the first classroom.Pupils sat on stones under the shade of the tree to learn.

The Good Samaritan School Lusaka Zambia

Over the next few weeks I hope to post lots of information and photos about this school in Zambia and hope that you will enjoy reading all about it. The charity Teacher Aid was started by Maggie Beecher in Cardiff after she visited the school whilst on holiday and realised that it needed a lot of help. There are now four trustees and we work hard to raise funds to improve the facilities at the school which educates 450 pupils.