School Support
MHPF encourages a global education community. We believe that by creating links between schools in the rural communities of Africa and schools in the western world, we are developing a stronger world. We are allowing the children to draw parallels between their own lives and the lives of children in the western world. It helps and encourages them to build relationships with children from other countries, to inspire them to learn and converse as a global community.
This ideal will also encourage our children in the West to think about how lucky they are and will enable them to witness at first hand what it must be like to live an African village.
MHPF is delighted to be involved with the 'Fire and Ice' Project, which is enabling our goals of global communities to be a reality. 'Fire and Ice' from Elluminate enables the MHPF schools to be linked to schools in the UK through video conferencing. The project will be one of only a handful of a similar nature, providing a window of opportunity in order to achieve a true global community. The opportunity is exciting for both the children of the MHPF schools and the schools that are twinned with them in the UK. It provides an insight into rural Africa for the outside world, but it also gives a view of the outside world to the MHPF children.
It is with great pleasure that MHPF have established links between their schools in rural Africa to St Josephs school in Castleford, West Yorkshire and St Marys school in Rothwell, West Yorkshire. We are also very lucky to be able to count 'The Gleddings' in Halifax, West Yorkshire as a friend and key supporter of the work that MHPF are doing. With the support of each of these schools, the work that MHPF are able to do is increased dramatically.
St Josephs School - Castleford, West Yorkshire, UK
In October 2008, St Josephs School was twinned with Memusi School and was the first of the schools that was twinned with an MHPF school. Headmaster Kieron Flood, his staff and the students at St Josephs have shown tremendous passion and faith for the Memusi project and had the desire to create a permanent link between the two schools.
The link provides an exciting opportunity for all children involved in the link and in November 2008 correspondance between the 2 sets of children began. This was done initially through written communication and helped both sets of children to create new relationships. In December 2008, the Fire and Ice Project will go "live" and children at Memusi School and St Josephs will see the video link established. This technology will enable visual and verbal communication.
Commitment from St Josephs has seen a great deal of generousity directed towards its partner school. Funds raised at school events have been donated to the Foundation to enable it to achieve its goals. This support has enusred that St Josephs are truly a part of the Memusi project, helping towards the development of the new school buildings and contributing towards the quality of education that the children receive.
Over the coming year, St Josephs and Memusi will continue to work towards strengthening their relationship and learning from each other. With the global community link planned to be implemented in January 2009, the community link will give the first opportunity for visual contact.
St Marys - Rothwell, West Yorkshire, UK
In November 2008, St Marys School was twinned with TEAM school in Mlali. Teacher Rebecca Carr has played a key role in developing a relationship between St Marys School and the MHPF. It is a pleasure to be able to twin TEAM school in Mlali with St Marys school.
St Marys have developed a similar initial link with TEAM school that St Josephs did with Memusi, in that they are currently corresonding with them through written communication. This has enabled the children to develop a relationship and start to get to know each other.
It is part of the MHPF roadmap to develop the Fire and Ice link between St Marys and TEAM school in 2009. This link will again strengthen the childrens relationship through visual as well as written communication.
St Mary's have been enormously kind and organised a fundraising event in November 2008. This raised funds to go towards the development of the MHPF schools. This support has aided the development of other schools.
2009 will also see the new relationship between the 2 schools strenghten. Written communication will continue allowing both sets of children to begin to establish strong relationships. In June 2009, the TEAM school will join the global community through the Fire and Ice project. This will allow both schools to communicate visually and audibly.
The Gleddings - Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK
MHPF are delighted to be able to consider 'The Gleddings Preparatory School' in Halifax as a friend of the Foundation.
Through the inspirational Mrs Wilson (founder of The Gleddings), Jayne Gravenor and the rest of their colleagues, support for both Memusi and TEAM schools has been established. Mrs Wilson heard of the work that MHPF were doing and was touched by the stories of the schools. Both Memusi and Team schools were being crippled due to the costs of their stationary and in October 2008, The Gleddings began collecting stationary to send to Africa. This in turn removed the huge burden on Memusi and Team and has helped the schools start to flourish.
Through further initiatives by Mrs Wilson and her colleagues at The Gleddings, money is being raised to help fund the salary of a teacher at both Memusi and TEAM. In order to create stability in the school environment, one of the first actions needed to be taken is to balance the income and expenditure. This often results in the teaching staff taking on more responsibilty with large class sizes. The support of The Gleddings will enable a key expenditure to be covered and allow the development of the teaching staff to be increased. An important aim of the Foundation is not to simply provide a basic level of education, but an excellent education. With the aim of covering a teachers salary, The Gleddings are helping MHPF achieve those goals.