James Shaw, 7AR and his family have been supporting the Bush Bells School in Kenya since they visited friends on holiday last year. They returned this year with a big boxful of primary reader books donated by Calvi House.

Bush Bells School in Gede, Kenya is run by a young man called Harun Khamis. Harun set up the school by turning a 6 acre family plot into a centre for conservation. Local children used to come to the property to learn about indigenous flora and fauna and this led him to start a school in November 2004. Prior to this children received a poor, or no education or had to travel a very long way to reach the nearest school.

He began with 4 pupils and by the end of the first year had 20 learning in the smallest of huts. Harun sold his donkey and cleared the land and is now a registered school as a centre of education. He often takes children who cannot pay or only pay when parents can find the money as he feels that what he is doing for them is so important. However, the conditions are basic, sticks and stones are used for counting, and the Shaws noticed that notebooks had been used and rubbed out again for re-use several times. Last year they took out pencils, pens, crayons, pads of papers and a few books and were delighted to be able to take out more books from Feltonfleet and donations towards a Form 1 Classroom at half term this year. This year a new second classroom has been completed and a third is on its way. This has been a very rewarding project to support and has been an eye opener to both Jenny and Jamie says Mum, Sarah Shaw on her return.