GENEROUS donations of schools uniform have been distributed to schools in Zimbabwe.

After the recent school uniform change at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School, parents kindly donated pre-loved school gear to the Hwange Schools Project, which has now reached its final destination in Africa.

Over the past two years they were transported via various free means, and in March this year they were distributed in the Matabeleland rural area, adjacent to the Hwange National Park.

Lucy Tang has been a volunteer of the Hwange Schools Project for nearly ten years now.

Due to her strong connections in Africa after living there from the age of 15 to 25 years old, it became like a second home to her and a place that her and her family visit annually.

When she started to investigate charities, a friend put her in contact with Lindsay Norman who set up the Hwange Schools Project.

The Schools Project works closely with the Imvelo Safaris community development department.

Lucy’s role is to raise money, secure sponsorship and collect useful educational donations for the schools, and about every two years she gets the opportunity to go out with the charity to engage with the local community and support teacher training workshops, visit the orphanages, and supply the schools and medical centre with what’s been collected.

Over the past 10 years, through securing sponsorship, they have been able to send out consignments of sportswear for eight football teams and also 200 pairs of new school shoes and 400 tee-shirts.

Haberdashers’ Monmouth also donated some redundant plastic carousel water drinks holders.

Around seven or eight years ago a former head boy at Haberdashers’ Monmouth managed to secure donations from BIC stationery and other stationery companies for a project in India.

However, he was unable to fund the actual delivery of these to a deserving location and he asked the charity if they could take them to Africa, which was able to deliver six cases.

A couple of years ago, Haberdashers’ Monmouth’s girls also donated some 50 redundant geography textbooks.

“The schools are thrilled with the uniforms and they have been distributed to a number of schools, including the least under resourced primary’s,” said Lucy.

“Receiving uniform in the amounts that we have from Habs, good quality, and such a variety has been a huge boost. The schools have been very generous over the years.”

The Hwange Schools Project is a registered non-profit, volunteer based organisation which aims to improve literacy level in the schools it supports.

It began in 2013 following a request from Imvelo Lodges to help stock a library at Ngamo Primary School with a initial donation of 400 books.

By 2020 the organisation had widened its efforts, sending more than 34,000 books to nine primary schools and three secondary schools it supports.

This initiative has not only supported students overseas but how collective efforts can create meaningful change to those in other parts of the world.