Thursday 1st April
Karnagie Sharp's diary: Day 1 | |
|  | | Homes of some of the pupils from Nonhlevu Secondary school |
| | On Tuesday April 27 South Africa celebrates 10 years of democracy. BBC Radio Berkshire and six local schools have launched a project to help provide a congratulatory meal to a deprived school in South Africa.
Our reporter Karnagie Sharp is in South Africa to help get the project off the ground. |
| | | Karnagie Sharp's diary Day 1
Today was my first visit to the school in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. Even though I was born and brought up in this country, the lives of the under-privileged never fail to surprise me.  | | Two pupils from the school and two community volunteers working during lunchtime to level out the school's roads after the rain. |
The country has been ravaged through years of legal oppression, making the task of improving living conditions a colossal one.The school that the six Berkshire schools are working with is smack-bang in the middle of a rural area. A place neglected by the past and almost ignored by the present. It's the South Africa that people would like to forget.Children that go to this school come from extremely poor backgrounds. Some of them have to walk up to fifteen kilometres to get to here.  | | Pupils enjoying a game of football |
Walking around the premises today made me realise just how lucky other children in more fortunate countries are. There are sixty children to a class at Nonhlevu Secondary and the surprising thing is the silence that grabs you when you're walking past a classroom…how different to the circumstances that we face as teachers in the UK. These children have the utmost respect for you and on hearing what we're doing they are now even more enthusiastic to prove to us that they'll work harder, to get the support they need.  | | Grade 12 children at a tutorial |
The head teacher at the school, Mr Naicker, is a man with an incredible vision. He has made this school into a comfortable learning environment, always keeping in mind the needs of a child. Even though he was credited by the minister of education last year for his outstanding contribution to this school, he remains humble and his vision for his pupils grows with each new day….he has my utmost respect and is really looking forward to Twinning with the Berkshire Schools in the future. Tomorrow, I head back to the school to investigate the lives of two of the children who walk twelve kilometres each day to get to school and back….bearing the burden of poverty, but persevering to take advantage of whatever this education system can offer them…
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