HCHS has an amazing international link with Maweni Primary School in Tanzania, which began in June 2018 when their head teacher, Mr Wallace Joseph, visited HCHS. This began a journey of friendship and understanding between the two schools. Staff and students from both schools have benefited immensely. They now have a broader international outlook and a deeper understanding of our two very different cultures.

I was lucky to visit Maweni Primary School in October 2018 and it was obvious that they needed a new classroom to replace a dilapidated and dangerous classroom that was built in the 1960s. This classroom had been condemned by the local authority, but was still being used for up to 200 students during a lesson.

In late 2018 HCHS committed itself to raising the funds needed to build a new and bigger classroom for the staff and students of Maweni Primary School. This new classroom would be bigger than the standard sized classroom in Tanzania and built to higher standards, especially with the foundations, to allow it to last for many years to come.

The old classroom was demolished in early 2019 and the site made safe.

Building the new classroom is happening in three stages:

Stage 1 - Foundations and walls, costing £3,600.

Stage 2 - Roof timbers and the roof corrugated iron sheets, costing £2,400.

Stage 3 - Plastering, painting, window and doors, desks and benches and a blackboard, costing £2,500

During 2019, the families, students and staff of HCHS raised a magnificent total of £5,200 for the new classroom. There have been many cake sales, non-uniform days, a staff v. sixth-form football match and many smaller donations through collection boxes in tutor rooms. This money has been spent on the foundations, walls and building most of the roof. It has taken the new classroom to nearly the end of stage 2.

To finish this building project a further £3,300 need to be fundraised and I hope that you can help contribute.

Building work and fundraising stopped earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the COVID-19 situation has improved in Tanzania and building work on the new classroom is now possible again. All the building work

has been done by local builders from Maweni village and this project has been a real focus for the village and school.

£3,300 will pay for the roof to be finished, hopefully before the rainy season arrives in 2021, for the plastering and painting to be done, for school desks and chairs to be made by local joiners and for the new classroom to finished.

I hope that you will be able to help.

John Ellis