Mvumi School Trust

Last summer, Hugo Frith and Laura Buxton decided to do something different with their holidays.

Using the idea of combining a charity project and their mutual enjoyment of horse riding as a basis, they decided to raise money for African Schools by performing an extended endurance ride on their horses Basil and Drummer.

Hugo chose to raise money for the DCT Mvumi School in Tanzania, while his companion chose to fund a new library for a similar school in the Zambian copper belt.

The ride took place over a period of four nights and five days; completing at 8.00 pm on Friday evening, thus achieving their goal.

The route of their journey totalled over 100 miles in length, and took them through such places as Salisbury Plain and Cranborne Chase.

The Trust has been awarded a grant of £180,000, of which the largest part will finance the opening of a unit for 50 severely visually impaired students.

This unit, which will be an integral part of the main School will provide boarding accommodation, class rooms and Braille machines with specialised teachers. The Tanzanian Department of Education has agreeed to fund the teaching salaries.

We shall continue to seek to expand the bursary and hardship scheme by actively seeking additional sponsors. The Rose Scholarship scheme will provide for slightly over 50 students in 2007. We have agreed to consider offering Fifth and Sixth Form Scholarships to suitable candidates who join the School after sitting the national examinations taken in Form 4.