Cottlands  School in the Gumbi Community Kwa Zulu Natal province of South Africa receives very little government assistance, so in November 2018 we decided to run a fundraiser to help. With the wonderful support of family and friends we raised $5120.00 AUD. A truly fabulous effort in a short space of time.

Zandile the headmistress had a wish list of essential items such as exercise books, pens and pencils through to text books learning posters and sports equipment. We had funds for everything and more, making a 300klm round trip just for the stationary. We even managed to get some black board paint to renew the old worn boards.

The children in grades 3-7 were each given 6 exercise books, a pen, a pencil, ruler, sharpener and a rubber. What a day! The pride on Zandile’s face when she handed out the books, and the childrens’ excitement was a joy to see.

You can see for yourself in our book Africa for Kids ( All profits from our books go directly to the school).

A new pre-school / childcare facility for the local children has been built with the generous help of African Insight; an organisation who bring in university students to further their studies in conservation and community interaction.

However, once the building was complete it remained empty. Using donated funds we bought colourful sleeping mats, colouring books, crayons, chalk, playmats and durable wooden toys so the children could attend. A local man was employed to clear the school grounds, which were badly overgrown. A mighty effort with only a whipper snipper to clear a large paddock of knee high weeds!

The ABC and 123 posters were painted by our grandson’s class at Grange Primary School and are a huge hit.

There is no funding available to Zandie to pay staff to look after the pre-school children, so after discussing it with us, we agreed the remainder of the funds raised would be used to provide wages for the next 12 months.

We are personally funding the wages now, and our grandchildren all donate $1.00 of their pocket money each week, which pays for lunch each day for all the pre-schoolers.

100% of all donations and 100% of all profits from sales of our books and knitted goods are given directly to the school either as wages or as equipment.