Hope Foundation School

Yesterday at 08:25  19.09.22

THE BOXES HAVE ARRIVED! 

Hello everyone,

So glad to let you know that we  were able to collect the boxes at S&J freight company’s warehouse. Thanks to those who kindly donated them and in a very special way to Mrs Brooker and Stoke Coventry Primary School for covering the transport cost to get the boxes to Mazinga village.

We cannot wait to see heart warming smiles of our intended beneficiaries when they receive the lovely contents of the boxes!

Thanks everyone for your continued support that is so generous of you all.

Together we are transforming many lives!

July 2022 - update

I’ve just heard from The Bananabox Trust that our 17 banana boxes are nearing the end of their journey to Hope Foundation School! The pink line above shows the journey they’ve taken so far and the small pink dot is where they are headed!
I’m hoping to be able to share some photos with you as they arrive if it is before the end of August. Otherwise, Mrs Taylor will be taking over the fundraising for Hope Foundation School from September and she will keep you informed. 
Thank you for your continued support and donations - it all makes such a difference to the children and community of Hope Foundation School. Mrs Brooker

May 2022 - Update

I have two very exciting pieces of news to share with you this month!

Firstly, you can now hear the clip that was recorded when Dan from Radio CWR came in to interview the children, myself and Mrs Morris about the work that we are all doing to support the children of Hope Foundation School.  Please follow the link by clicking on the photo above (you may need to sign up for BBC Sounds but, trust me, it will be worth it to hear our children speaking with so much energy and passion!).  I think you will agree that they did brilliantly - well done to Ruth, Aiden, Chloe and Matteo.

Secondly, after the container mix up, our 17 banana boxes are finally on their way to Malawi.  The journey normally takes about three months so I am hopefully that we will hear some news from Kondwani at Hope Foundation School in August.  I will update you when I hear any news.

Our next fundraiser will be coming soon - information will be shared as soon as we have everything planned.

April 2022 - Update 2

Today we welcomed a radio presenter from BBC CWR into school.  He interviewed some of the Year 2 children, Mrs Brooker and Mrs Morris about the fundraising we are doing for Hope Foundation School and the interview will be broadcast on his 'Making a DIfference' show on Friday evening (May 29th) between 7pm and 10pm.  Tune in to find out what was said.

In other news, the container has arrived back at the Bananabox Trust for repacking and will hopefully be on it's way to Malawi very soon.

April 2022 Update

The 'stand out' dress up day was a huge success.  It was fabulous to see the children and adults in their colourful clothes and the day raised an amazing £693.98.  This is amazing and will go a long way towards our new longer term project which is to raise money for the building of a brand new watertight library building for Hope Foundation School rather than the one in the photo above which is very dark and lets in all the rain which ruins the books.  The winner of the raffle for two free tickets for a Coventry City football match was Dallas - well done to him.  I am sure he will have a fantastic time at the match.

We are still waiting for a further update on the container with our bananaboxes - it is currently still in Grangemouth waiting to go back to The Bananabox Trust for repacking and then it will be on it's way - again!

At the start of next term, we will be having a visit from a local radio station who are keen to hear all about how the children and community of Stoke Primary School are helping the children and communitiy of Hope Foundation School - there is certainly a lot going on for the children to be able to share with the radio presenters.  More news will follow about this soon.

March 2022 Update

Disaster strikes!

The volunteers at The Bananabox Trust in Dundee worked tirelessly to pack the container with our 17 banana boxes (and over 1000 others and various other donated items all destined for Malawi) last weekend.  The container was collected and taken to Grangemouth (a port town in Scotland) to begin it's 10000 mile journey to Africa via Antwerp in Belgium.  Unfortunately, on arrival in Grangemouth, they discovered that this particular container was not labelled up for Africa but instead for somewhere completely different!!  Thankfully, they discovered it before it had set off.  Now the poor volunteers at The Bananabox Trust have to wait for the container to be returned to them so that they can empty it and then repack the correct container.  What a shame!  However, I know these volunteers will do a superb job and our boxes will soon be on the way.

Watch out for the next update - we are preparing for our next fundraiser just before the Easter holiday; more exciting news about what we are collecting for next and we are hoping for a visit from a local radio station soon so that the children can share what they have been doing for the children and community of Hope Foundation School.

February 2022 - Update 2

What a superb end to the half term!  The pyjama parties were well attended by so many of our KS1 and KS2 children and donations of clothes, shoes and other items to be sent to Malawi came pouring in.  Mrs Brooker has been very busy packing up SEVENTEEN banana boxes full of wonderful donated items all ready to be collected from her house on Monday to begin their journey to Malawi via The Bananabox Trust in Dundee, Scotland.  As well as all of the donated items in the boxes, there are also a further 172 books which were bought with the remainder of the money from the first fundraiser.  

Stoke Primary children, staff and community - you are all amazing!  The contents of these boxes will benefit so many of the children at Hope Foundation School in Malawi.

Keep an eye out for information for the next fundraiser.

February 2022 - Update 1

What a busy month February has been.  At the start of the month, the container arrived in Malawi and our seven boxes mostly filled with our old exercise books that were destined for the skip made their way to Hope Foundation School.  They had taken over 3 months to get there but I think you will agree that the faces of the children made the wait worthwhile!  

January 2022 - Update

Following our first successful school community fundraiser, the children decided to buy some books for the Hope Foundation School library. We posted a small package out just before the Christmas holiday to ensure that they would arrive quickly and these have now arrived. It’s wonderful to see the children’s faces. Due to the postal costs, the rest of the books will go via the next Bananabox Trust container shipment which will tie in with our next fundraiser - more information to follow. 
Well done Stoke Primary children and families - we’re so proud of you. 
 

Background Information

We have been lucky to make links with Hope Foundation School in Malawi.  The lead teacher, Kondwani, is working tirelessly with his team of volunteers to educate and care for these children, many of whom are orphans or live in extreme poverty and poor living conditions and without help from others around the world would have no future prospects.  Being able to support and educate them means that they will have better chances of success as they grow up.  

Before we began our fundraising efforts at school, we had already raised enought money to provide the school with a motorbike which means that Kondwani can now easily get the children to medical care when needed (something that he used to have to do on the back of a push bike) and we have also sent some boxes to the school with donations from school and school staff.  These boxes will be arriving in January.  

When the Year 2 children were learning about Africa, they became so inspired at wanting to help and decided to set up a fundraiser of their own and get the whole school involved.  They also decided that they didn't want this to be a one-off so this link between the schools is now set to continue and go from strength to strength.

The first fundraiser was a topic related dress up day where £500 was raised.  Photos from this day can be found in the website gallery.  Money raised will be used to help stock up Hope Foundation School's library with books and money will also go towards motorbike helmets for the children to help keep them safe and towards maintenance and fuel costs for the motorbike.

There are already plans underway for the next fundraiser in February 2022 and more information will follow soon.