Africa aid finally arrives

By Casey Neill
AFTER months of planning and fundraising, hills residents’ donations have finally reached Africa.
A shipping container filled with toys, sewing machines, clothes, bed, bikes, stationery and tools collected from the Upwey community began a six-week journey to Chibobo on 28 May.
Project organiser Margaret Collette saw the poor conditions the Chibobo villagers lived in when she visited the tiny Zambian village in November 1999.
Chibobo is home to 4000 people which includes 85 orphans.
Ms Collette began collecting basic items for the villagers late last year.
Upwey High School students were instrumental in collecting goods and raising almost $20,000 for the project.
Ms Collette received word that the container had finally reached the village on 24 August, more than a month late.
A friend in Zambia, Emmanuel Mutamba, had difficulty getting the container from the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam to Chibobo.
Upwey High School year 11 students Tim Whitelaw, 16, and Toby McMillan, 17, flew to Africa with Ms Collette and her daughter in law Veronica Buckley on 20 July to personally deliver goods to the Chibobo orphans.
Unfortunately, the group had to return home in early August before the container arrived.
Toby said the trip was ‘mind blowing’.
“Just driving over there you notice kids are having heaps of fun with a plastic bag or a can or something and over here we need a computer or some high tech thing just to get by,” he said.
“We’re sending blankets over there and if we got given a blanket we’d be like ‘oh, yeah’ but they love it so much.”
Toby said the cultural differences were difficult to overcome.
“The first day we got there we got to the room and just looked at each other and went ‘what are we doing here?’” he said.
“It was just scary. Because it’s so different I didn’t know what would offend people.”
Thankfully Zambian native Ms Buckley was Toby’s culture guide.
“If she wasn’t there… I don’t think we would have come back,” he said.
The boys found the language barrier a challenge in more rural areas.
“But you kind of gather things. A smile is a smile,” Tim said.
It is not a question of if the boys will return to Zambia but when.
“I’m definitely going back, that’s all I know,” Tim said.