Tribal Group Foundation Proposed Sponsorship

While visiting Nottingham recently, I was privileged to have met Emily Ray, a Team Leader at Tribal Group UK Ltd . She updated me on the latest developments regarding our being nominated for funding and we had time to discuss the possibility of Tribal Foundation supporting a key project in the school other than electricity and/or water and sanitation.

It is our hope that we can be supported to put up a tuition block of 8 classrooms, an office, an ICT Room and toilets (at the moment we have inadequate sanitary facilities) and the number of children continues to grow at the school. The Foundation will reach a key decision regarding our being funded on 25th February 2009. Should we be successful, this will be a huge step in our endeavour to be a model school in the area and will enable us continue to take on more needy children each year as we will not be hampered by space.

I indicated to Emily that we could name our completed Tuition Block after Tribal Group Foundation and will do what we can to enhance our children's global awareness through enhanced ICT use.

We remain very grateful to Emily for her continued support and for sparing time to come down to Nottingham to meet me.

Update from Wadsworth Fields Primary School, UK

I have just completed my visit to Wadsworth Fields Primary School, UK under the DFiD Global Partnerships Programme, who funded my travel. I learned so much during the visit. Children are given the opportunity to participate in the learning process. The interactive methods of teaching and the use of the many resources in the school makes the teachers' work all the easier. Of particular interest for me was their use of the ICT in the teaching process. Most of the teaching resources could easily be accessed on various government websites.

Following my visit, we have now formally agreed to exchange information in three key areas: Citizenship and Social Cohesion, Environmental Awareness, and lastly ICT. The School has two international links committee, one for the pupils and the other for the teachers. It was further agreed that Mr Terry Maxwell and Mrs Jane Sheppard will be visiting Upendo early July as part of the Reciprocal Visit under the DFiD grant. It will be nice to have the two as Terry will introduce the staff at UJS on Teaching Reading and Writing Links (TRAWL) while Jane will show how teachers can assist the last able children improve their literacy and numeracy skills. We look forward to the visit.

I feel most honoured that I was able to come and hope that the partnership grows.