Caroline Sturtridge walked the London Marathon finishing in 8hrs 2 mins – fast enough to get a medal and an official finishing time. She was certainly not the last to finish; some people started off running and almost crawled to the finish line! She felt fine except for a few blisters and stiff legs. To date her effort has raised £2,750 for the Project.

Thanks to the Coakley family our Heal Project lunch on 5th May was very successful with 70 people sitting down and enjoying a Sunday roast dinner. It was a very happy atmosphere and the event raised £806 for the fund.

We have received the following news from Jeannie in Zambia:

“The school is getting on well with pupils reporting to school after the holidays. The number is being maintained at 350. This week was busy as it was when guardians of the children were coming to get the report forms of the pupils and hear progress reports from the teachers. It has been easy for the teachers to teach as we have almost all the teaching aids, e.g. text books and stationery to use; thank you for this support.

This month we are going to hire the waste tank truck to pump out the toilets as they are full. We have put this to our extra cost at the school. And the future plan is to change these toilets to flushing with running water. The other plan is to pay Zesco (Zambia Electric Supply Co.) so that there could be proper running water from the taps, as this will make the school more hygienic and clean. We also want to finish off the classroom at the end of the block. This will give us room for another class. The kitchen building has been paid for by Kelly’s father-in-law from England, and it is in working order.

The skills at school are also going well. The knitting group is still going on with an increasing number of women coming. Prisca the knitting teacher has come back and is teaching the group knitting. We also found a nice person who serviced the two knitting machines which are working well. The group are trying to work out a market strategy. It has started getting cold now and they are making jerseys. The knitting machines generate an income as jerseys made in Zambian colours and scarves sell well when the Zambian football team are playing as soccer fans buy them.

Sewing is also doing well as usual, though it is difficult to generate money in that it just teaches basic sewing, but plans are also there to do some marketing with good and neat marketable items that people would like to buy.

At the new house the water tank stand has been put up and water pumps in. There has been a new development as the Orange Babies (a Dutch based charity funded by a pop star) have sponsored the extension building which is to be my bedroom. They said they want me to have my own self-contained bedroom. The building is going on. And instead of just my bedroom, we have also added two more bedrooms, extended the dining room and the kitchen. This is going to give more much needed space.
Orange Babies are our other sponsors. They stopped supporting us completely but now they have come back and found us because we have been able to continue with our work using the money you send. They couldn’t have found us still going had it not been, so we really appreciate your funding.

Rose (our daughter who is visiting the Project in July) can bring more pants – underwear for boys and girls. Boys and girls here mostly don’t have underwear especially at our school.

We shall be giving you more news often now our computer has been fixed.

Jeannie”

I have edited Jeannie’s letter and added the bracketed words.

I have sent £3,350 in May to help with all these extra expenses. With money coming in from the Marathon, the Heal Sunday lunch, the plant sale and some generous donations from kind friends, our funding is going well. Thank you all so much.

Joyce Ayles