Hampshire teacher says 'thank you' as she raises £25,000 for school in Kenya

A primary school teacher from Hampshire is celebrating raising more than £25,000 for African Promise, a charity which supports primary schools in a remote area of rural Kenya.

Suzanne Payne, a teacher at Andrews’ Endowed School in Alton, has been a prominent fundraiser for the charity since 2014 through her initiative Baskets4Bread. This has seen family, friends and the wider East Hampshire community generously make donations in exchange for handmade crafts that Suzanne sources from local artisans in Kenya.

These donations have helped to provide a daily lunch for 250 children at Kiteghe Primary School in the Kasigau community of south-east Kenya for the last three years as well as to provide an extra teacher, textbooks and clean drinking water, and more recently to fund much-needed repairs and refurbishments to school buildings.

Suzanne has recently received a new delivery of woven baskets and fabric animals from Kenya and she is now aiming to raise £8,000 towards the charity’s drought appeal, which it has launched because the price of food has risen by 25% in three months due to a year-long dry spell.

Suzanne says, “African Promise is a small charity which means that almost every penny raised goes directly to benefiting the children that need help. I was delighted to be made an Ambassador for the charity last year and this has given me the opportunity to tell people about the fantastic and necessary work they do. I want to thank everyone whose support is making such a difference to the lives of these children.”

However, as Suzanne explains, the increase in food prices makes the need for this support even more crucial, “For many of these children the lunch provided by African Promise is their only guaranteed meal of the day during this drought. Incredibly, just £1.50 is enough to provide a daily lunch to one child for a whole month.”

If you would like to make a donation towards the drought appeal and help provide a daily lunch to the 2,700 children across African Promise’s seven partner schools then please visit the charity’s website at www.africanpromise.org.uk.