A BROWNIE leader has travelled to Zimbabwe to meet pupils and teachers at a primary school her pack has been supporting for the past 13 years.

Sharon Hattersley, leader of 1st Burley-in-Wharfedale Brownies, said the trip to Katiyo Primary School in Zimbabwe was "truly the adventure and experience of a lifetime".

She added: "I felt both blessed and humbled to be at the school and to be made to feel so welcome.

"I came away energised and even more determined than ever to continue to make a difference for the children at Katiyo."

It was 15 years ago Sharon first read in Guiding magazine about a charity called Book Aid, which collects books from around the world and supplies them at a low cost to schools across Africa.

As a group, the 1st Burley Brownies collected and bought books to send to the charity, and placed 'book-plates' inside them with the unit's name on. The books ended up with Lynn Walker, a charity worker in Zimbabwe, who is originally from Otley. She made contact with Sharon and her Brownie unit via a letter in the Wharfedale Observer and Sharon's mum, which led to Lynn pairing 1st Burley-in-Wharfedale Brownies with Katiyo Primary School in the Honde Valley, close to the border with Mozambique.

"This began a long but immensely rewarding journey for us as a family and for the Brownies," said Sharon. "We now fundraise regularly, holding coffee mornings, selling biscuits, running a stall at the Burley Christmas market and giving talks to groups."

And it was this summer Sharon had the opportunity to travel to the country to see first hand how that support makes a difference to the school, which lies within the Katiyo Tea Estate, a large farm about five-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Harare.

Sharon said: "Katiyo and the Honde Valley are a fertile area of rural Zimbabwe, where it is possible to grow a wide range of crops, with tea, maize and bananas amongst the most popular.

"Sadly, the farm is not currently actively due to financial difficulties, which means tea plants are growing to heights of seven or eight feet, no tea is being harvested and workers are not being paid.

"However, the teachers at Katiyo don’t allow any of these challenges to stop them from doing the best they can for their children. Despite limited resources, each classroom is decorated with handmade colourful posters, lessons are well planned and taught and the children are eager to learn.

"During the past 12 years, with the help of the Brownies, our friends and families, we have raised more than £8,000, which has helped to electrify the teachers’ houses so they didn’t have to plan lessons by candlelight (until the power was cut off, which the school is hoping to rectify), finished a well for the school and villagers, completed classroom repairs, bought desks for four year groups, started a library, bought a printer, paid for chickens for the breeding project, bought a siren, paid for desks for the office and other projects.

"As part of my visit, I was able to watch a lesson, tour the classrooms and meet and get to know staff and pupils. I was treated to performances of dance, drumming, poetry and drama from pupils, and listened to speeches by the headteacher and members of the school community.

"I learned that despite the great challenges they face, staff are still committed to continuing to make improvements at the school, and they need our help and your help to continue to do that."

Projects Sharon hopes to be able to help the school with in the coming years include: building and equipping a classroom for the early years classes – they currently meet in the church as they have no classroom; finish buying desks for all the classrooms; completing the library project by extending the Happy Readers scheme across school; make the school secure by putting up a fence around the perimeter and help to support income-generating projects – the school planted and looks after 400 banana plants and sells the fruit to supplement the income from school fees, as not all families can afford to pay them (all children in Zimbabwe pay fees to attend school).

Sharon added: "A little help can make a big difference: £3 buys another book for the library; £27 buys a set of nine Happy Reader books; £35 buys a desk, giving two more children somewhere to sit and learn; £250 buys a set of books for another year group.

"When I visited the school, I was able to take donations of books, pens and school resources thanks to the generosity of the Brownie families, friends and relatives, the members of Ilkley Chat and DePuy Synthes, where one of our Brownie dads works."

If anyone would like to find out more about the school or make a donation, they can get in touch via the1stburleybrownies@gmail.com e-mail address.

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