Many of you know already of CVC's long-standing partnerships with Edendale School in South Africa and with Escola Secundaria Noroeste do 1 in Mozambique. This summer, as every year, CVC students went to our partner schools as volunteers, teaching lessons and, in the case of South Africa, spending time with the children at the on-site orphanage. They saw first-hand that, whilst much is changing for the better, there is still a lot to be done.

Since 1997 Comberton has been committed to making a contribution to the improvement of educational opportunities for students at Edendale. Funds from the Africa walk make it possible for our link to be a two-way exchange. Without this money, students from Edendale would not be able to come here to experience a very different way of life, broaden their horizons and perhaps raise their aspirations for the future.

The partnership with Edendale benefits Comberton too. The students who visit the college here are wonderful young people who bring their culture and their experiences to share with the whole school by leading assemblies, concerts, primary school visits and participating in many different lessons. Their visit here is enriching for the whole school community and many friendships are made during their time with us.

Escola Secundaria Noroeste do 1, in Mozambique is a mixed gender government school with over 6000 students which has very limited resources. It is very rare that students from the school travel within their own country let alone have the opportunity to visit another. For the past few years, we have been able to fund two students and a teacher to spend a week in Comberton. We know that this experience has been life-changing for the students and teacher involved and that the influence is being more widely felt now within the school itself. Monies from the walk will, we hope, now enable us to fund these visits every two years.

This year, in addition, we want to allocate monies from the walk to build an appropriate shelving and cataloguing system in the school library at Noroeste do 1 to enable students there to benefit from being able to borrow the many books that we have sent to them over the past three years.

There is no external funding to support these partnerships and we know of many schools who are unable to sustain international links like those we enjoy at Comberton

As the School Council we feel it is important that the student body takes an active role in supporting these exchanges and it is hoped that by organising such a large whole school event that we can raise all the necessary funds for each school.

We are aiming to raise £5000 again this year. In order to achieve this goal we suggest that each family makes an overall donation of £5.00, although larger donations will be gratefully received. This donation entitles students to come to school in their own clothes on that Friday and to take part in the walk.

Once you donate, JustGiving transfers your money directly to the CVC Trust Fund account and makes sure Gift Aid is added to every donation made by a UK taxpayer.

Thank you for your generosity,

Head Prefect team:

Anne-Lucie, Subhalakshmi, Liam and Thomas

Rachel Hawkes

Assistant Principal

Director of Languages and International Development