200 Machines were collected from around Scotland, checked, boxed and delivered to London for the first time by container directly from Kyle. Packed with love on a typical (wet) West Coast day with help from the Navy Base and unsuspecting passers-by. Witnessed by the Free Press, the team marked up each of the five destination areas in order for our Durban agent to separate and deliver at the Southern Africa end.

The computers were shipped from Tilbury docks to Durban in South Africa from where it was the various authorities and schools responsibility to organize transport to their respective establishments. Sadly, the customs authorities in Rotterdam decided the cargo was worthy of inspection so the entire container was removed from ship and held in dock for two weeks, awaiting the next available ship. When the group arrived in Southern Africa in July for the five week stay, we discovered the delay in delivery meant our first call, Lesotho, would require an extra day to deliver. Everyone made it work, so no hold up was necessary. Swaziland however would take longer to organise importation waivers, so that will be completed in October when I revisit. Thankfully, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Zambia and Polokwane all received computers on time so the team had much work to do.

The group delivering the second-user machines, consisted of six students from Plockton High School; Ben Bartlett, Rona Burstow, Tasha Donnellan, Alice Macrae, Dougal Murray, and Ross Sproul. Leaders were Louisa MacInnes and for the first time, Colin Mackenzie the High School technician, and myself.

57 Computers and printers were sent to schools in Lesotho, 44 machines were also sent to Swaziland. 22 computers were sent to an orphanage and rural schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal and 50 sent for schools in the Limpopo Region of South Africa. Further, 24 computers were forwarded to Faith and Hope orphanage in Lusaka, Zambia. As well as delivery, Colin repaired 10 machines in God’s Golden Acre, Kwa-Zulu Natal and a further 10 or so in both Lesotho, and Mmaphotla Primary in Polokwane.

The first school in Lesotho was Likileng English Medium School who received 12 PCs, the group also carried out a small number of repairs to computers that had been delivered previously. The school now has two computing rooms and reported how they were now delivering ICT lessons to all pupils attending the school. A further 6 computers were installed in St. Paul’s Primary and 30 imacs to the associated High School. It was wonderful to witness the new Computing and Business Suite built on the back of CFA computers. The group were treated to a splendid reception and celebration.

Our final call in the mountain kingdom was to Pela t’seau. The small primary now had sufficient machines to supply the primary and help with the planning of secondary school facilities planned for the near future.

We returned to South Africa to God’s Golden Acre, near Pietermaritsburg. A hard day was spent checking and rectifying machines following a years use by lively youngsters. The orphanage houses around 60 orphans who use the machines for study and entertainment. A full day was spent in the valleys around Cato Ridge installing 26 computers in 5 rural secondary schools, together with a Zulu learning centre. We were hosted in the learning centre and were able to hand over approximately 600 books collected by Plockton High students; we used them to pack around the computer delivery and they made a splendid addition to the iThembaletha Community Library where we watched youngsters attending reading sessions.

The next port of call should have been Malinza High School near Mpaka in Swaziland. However the delay in delivery meant that computers were held up at the Swaziland border awaiting tax exemption papers. It was decided that I would cancel the visit here until October when I plan to revisit the area.

Our final call was at Polokwane Capricorn District in Limpopo. We forwarded 11 computers to Mmaphotla Primary and 30 imacs to Badimong Primary near Mankweng. The group also repaired several PCs and Macs previously sent to Mmaphotla. Thanks to Kinlochleven High in Lochaber, Mmaphotla received a new football strip (Check out the photo above).

To date, over 50 schools have received over 1600 computers during the past 8 years as a result of CFA activities in the Polokwane area. A little extra time spread over two weeks meant the CFA volunteers were able to teach for 3 days to groups of pupils, teachers and even parents. We made a promise of sending more machines and training materials to Badimong next year, noting their enthusiasm and determination to use their new resource as constructively as possible.

This year we have been sponsored and supported not only by our own community but also by a major input from an outside source. The ability to concentrate on the job at hand as opposed to constant fund raising has been of immeasurable help. Once again, we would like to express our gratitude to the many people who have made this years’ work possible. Without this support we would never have been able to report these achievements,

Terry Heaviside