When I taught English at Humani School as a 17 year old fresh out of Catholic girls' school in North Queensland all those years ago, those 'kids' (many of them were my age or older even though they were in Grade 6), they taught me one of the most valuable lessons I've ever taken from Africa. They showed me the true value of education, something I took for granted as an Aussie, and how you can be happy with so much less than we have in material terms. The pupils at the school when I was there in the mid 1990s are grown up now of course. I discovered when I was there recently that a couple of them are working locally in the safari operation. The children at the school now are the offspring of the amazing Shona people who have been really battling to stay afloat this last decade. Some of their dads work for Roger Whittall in the safari business or as game scouts, trying to keep the rhino poaching at bay. You couldn't find a much more worthy cause than this. Education is one of the most valuable tools we have in the battle to save wildlife.
Because they get nailed by ridiculous taxes at the Zimbabwe side if I post the laptops to them, I'm trying to find people going over there to take one in their hand luggage. So if you or anyone you know is going to Harare in the next year, please let me know if there is any chance you could take one with you. They can be dropped off in Harare or picked up by a member of the Whittall family there for road transport to the school.
We've set up a special donate button on the Animal Works site where you can directly donate to help with the costs associated with courier of the laptops to people in Australia who are taking them over there. Just click here. It costs about $30 for each one depending on where they have to go to, so any small donations of $10 or $20 will help.