We would like to open this newsletter with a big thank you to all of you that have made Mark and Laura’s return to Zimbabwe possible. We have been blown away by the generosity of some individuals, companies, various schools and charities. Thank you, thank you!! We were excited to send Mark and Laura back with 8 laptops, 2 projectors, 3 white boards and various pieces of equipment that they will need at the school! We know that these simple things will make a huge difference to the teaching and learning of the students at the A-level centre.
We have recently completed our financial report for last year, which can be downloaded from our website. We hope this gives you an insight into where funds have been spent, plans for funding and how much we have managed to raise.
We continue to focus on raising support for the A-level Centre at Turf and for Mark and Laura. We have produced a 2011 Calendar, which is on sale and 100% of the proceeds will go towards the work in Zimbabwe. We are also selling last years Christmas cards and hope to have a new Christmas card design available from September this year. Please keep a look out for these products on our website.
We hold Mark and Laura in our prayers as they make this very big move for their family. We trust that they will settle quickly, find a home to live in and build some close friendships. We look forward to hearing about all that they will be doing.
A Very Big Thank You to:
New Community Church for the £500 raised at the quiz night where Makomborero were the beneficiaries.
ED & F Man for the very generous donation of £1356 towards the purchase of computers. 8 Laptops have been purchased for the school.
Jessie Fullenkemper – who will be running 13 miles to raise funds for Makomborero on 26th September. Go Jess!!!!
T-shirt Sales from Norris House at Benenden School – they raised £283.15 – well done girls!
Iden Green Congregational Church and Mr Noah’s Nursery School for their generous donation.
Ctxchange for the donation of Microsoft Software for our laptops – approx US$5000 worth of software.
To all the individuals who have so generously contributed to Makomborero!!
We are off!!! Mark and Laura’s return to Zimbabwe
Well we can’t believe that our departure date has arrived! We feel sad about leaving our lives in the UK and have so loved our time here. We have come to love this country and its people!! We have had to say some very hard good byes but hope to share Zimbabwe with many of our UK friends one day!
Zimbabwe is waiting and we feel a little nervous about what lies ahead. We are also incredibly excited at the reality of this new chapter beginning and are trusting that as a family we settle quickly.
We are hoping to have a few weeks to chill and enjoy being back in Africa – a family camping trip somewhere. During this time we hope to set up bank accounts, find out how life works in Zim again and hopefully find a home for us to live in out at Turf – trusting our 8 man tent won’t be our temporary home!
We plan to move out to Turf towards the end of August and will spend the last few months of this year getting to know teachers, students and the community, teaching, putting systems in place and generally finding our feet. I will take over the full running of the Centre in January 2011. We hope to keep you updated with our lives through our blog, and via newsletters like this one.
We would like to thank you all for all the support you have shown Laura and I. It has been truly humbling at times and reduced us to tears a fair few times too. We can’t thank you enough!!
Let the adventure begin!!
Written by: Laura Albertyn
