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MAPHUTSENG PROJECT
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The World Vision/William Carey, School to School, Maphutseng Project began in 2007 as a farewell gift to departing Head Master, Mr Warwick Wilkie. Maphutseng is a region in Lesotho, a small, mountainous landlocked country in South Africa.
The aim of the project was to raise $50,000 each year for 3 years, a total of $150,000. The money raised was to be used to renovate, rebuild and resource a badly run down high school in Maphutseng called Bethesda High.
This school had no running water or electricity, basic (and fairly shocking) sanitation, unlined rooves, no heating (in an area that experiences snow fall in winter), broken furniture, walls and windows, no science labs or equipment and many other problems.
They had a basic building and some furniture for approximately 300 students.
Our school community embraced this project wholeheartedly, easily meeting the $50,000 target each year. Special events and fundraisers were well attended by staff, students and school families.
In early 2009, seven students were selected to become World Vision/William Carey Student Ambassadors to Maphutseng. During the April 2009 school holidays Amy Carr, Year 12, Amie Hall, Year 11, Year 10 students Charlotte Layfield, Larissa Calarco, Hosea Luy,
Andres Diaz, and Tegan Hudson, Year 9 flew out of Sydney for Lesotho along with Mr Timothy Hewitt (WCCS and Teacher Maphutseng Project coordinator) and World Vision representative, Amanda Warick.
This group spent 13 days in Lesotho and spent time visiting the local World Vision office, sharing lessons and school life with the students of Bethesda High and even working in the village of Maphutseng doing household chores like cleaning, fetching water from
the local spring 1 kilometre away, preparing a meal, picking produce and herding cattle. They also visited an orphanage and two World Vision sponsor children, attended the local church service and were able to experience a little of the difficulty of living life with poverty and AIDS as constant companions.
They were able to see the improvements that had been made to the school. New science labs and equipment, a new water well, new toilet block for students, gyprocked walls and ceilings and a vegetable patch and piggery to provide food for the students.
Plans for sustainable projects for the village of Maphutseng are also underway to help the village become self sufficient.
These students have returned to Australia and have continued to be very active in the Maphutseng Project in their new capacity of Student Ambassadors. They have addressed assemblies of students at William Carey, have attended a World Vision Youth rally and are looking forward to a new direction in the
Maphutseng Project, now that the original aims have been met.
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