A CONTAINER from Operation Sunshine is due to leave Tavistock for Kilolo in the Iringa District of Tanzania on October 9.
Anne Lapage, daughter of the Rev Mike Lapage of Watts Road, Tavistock, has been working there for ten years and has asked Operation Sunshine specifically for furniture and equipment for a new secondary school and homes for the teachers.
She said Kilolo has a population of 120,000 but only three secondary schools.
Anne said: ?Of the 640 primary school leavers each year, fewer than 20 will be able to go to secondary school. Others may take up peasant, subsistence farming.
?Many take the railway to Dar es Salaam seeking work. Sadly neither fame nor fortune awaits them in the city. Most do not experience a good life and more often than not they become infected by AIDS. They then return to Kilolo by which time they are too ill to work.?
Anne said a new secondary school would open up new horizons for some of these children. In Africa there was very little more that was important than this.
It has taken three years for the Diocese of Iringa to raise the money to build the new school and homes for the teachers.
The first pupils will walk through the doors in January 2005.
During the last three years, Operation Sunshine has become known throughout Devon and Cornwall for its work in sending clothes, tools and educational equipment to the poorest people in parts of Europe but mainly Africa.
The 40ft container will be one of more than twelve ships? containers to have left Tavistock for Northern Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Rwanda carrying medical supplies, clothing, school furniture and uniforms, educational goods and tools and building supplies, where they have helped refugees, orphans, AIDS victims and lepers.
Operation Sunshine still needs educational and stationery supplies including geometry sets, rulers, exercise books, pens, rubbers etc and would welcome any donations, including financial.
Those who would like to help can contact Felicity Derry-Thomas, South West Regional Organiser at 01822 614146 or David Philpott, Treasurer at 1, Bluebell Way, St David?s, Tavistock, Tel: 01822 610484.