A COVENTRY-based international charity has received grants worth over £120,000 to support key projects which help support children in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Children’s charity Global Care has for over 30 years been pioneering initiatives across Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and Central America to help care for vulnerable children.
A large chunk of the funding (£100,000) has come from the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission and it will be used to improve and extend the main classroom block at Spurgeon’s Academy, a school in Kibera, Kenya, believed to be Africa’s biggest slum.
A further grant of £22,650 will enable a children’s home supported by Global Care in Zimbabwe to develop a farming initiative to create income for the home, making it less reliant on UK support.
“Both these projects build on initiatives already led by us in recent years, and we are thrilled to be able now to develop them further,” said John White, chief executive of Global Care.”
The work at Spurgeon’s Academy is urgently needed following redevelopment of the railway line behind the school, which led to the loss of some temporary buildings on the school site.
The school has remained open throughout the disruption, but is operating under fairly cramped conditions.
A second storey on the main classroom block will help increase the capacity of the building to include 11 classes, administration offices, a staffroom and a sick bay.
It will also be made wheelchair accessible, by constructing ramps in place of one of the existing staircases.
The farming initiative will take place at the Houtberg Childcare Centre in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, and follows a successful Harvest Appeal by Global Care last year.
The larger plot will be farmed on a commercial basis, allowing the Childcare Centre to develop new sources of income, while using the land resources more effectively and making the home more self-sustaining.
For more information about Global Care and the projects they carry out visit www.globalcare.org.uk
