US teacher's bid to aid school

The following article appeared in the Sunday Tribune, 8 August 2010:

SOUTH African-born Jenny Getz was living in the United States for years before she visited Tembe Elephant Park for the first time 10 years ago.

There the English teacher at the upscale private school Saint Mark, north of San Francisco, came upon a school less than 10 minutes by road from the entrance to the park.

There were 100 children in each of the eight classrooms and in each, three teachers were attempting to teach three different grades. Yet more children learned under trees growing in the dusty school grounds. There was no tap; no running water; not one toilet.

She took back photos and, sure enough, found among her peers, the pupils, and the parents, an interest in doing something to make a difference. So began what has developed into what Getz calls "a partnership" between eSibonisweni Creche and Primary in Maputaland and Saint Mark's in California.

Besides sending books, crayons and other classroom resources including computers and, recently, a keyboard for music classes, the Saint Mark's community has built two extra classrooms and helped the school apply for a grant that saw the South African government in collaboration with the European Union build several more.

They initiated a programme that provides the school's 40 neediest HIV/Aids orphans and their families with monthly groceries. They started a scholarship designed to keep girls in school.

Logon to the Sunday Tribune for the full article.