March has rolled around again which means I'm racing in the 109km Cape Argus Cycletour in South Africa to raise funds for The Kusasa Project (www.thekusasaproject.org) the educational charity I started while in South Africa.  The Kusasa Project has been running - against the odds - for 7 full years and has consistently run on the basic premise of "It's All About the Kids" in pursuit of our mission to provide education, nutrition, recreation and holistic support to young children from the informal settlements and farms around Franschhoek, South Africa.  ALL FUNDS GO DIRECTLY TO HELPING THE KIDS - (i.e. I pay my own expenses) 

A couple of highlights from our operations:

- Our Early Learning Centre - started in 2012 with 40 children and 2 grades, is now up to 4 grades and 84 children

- We've secured funding from the Liberty Global related charity Lessons For Life for 49 scholarships and 4 teachers

- We continue to feed over 700 children a day and are approaching  our 1 millionth (!) breakfast served in our Breakfast Club program in association with Le Quartier Francais.

- We have a fully qualified Social Worker on staff now to help with the urgent problems faced by our kids in the damaged communities they come from.

- Through our partnership with Philip Green's Hope Through Action foundation we hope to have access to permanent classrooms for our ELC in Jan 2015.

Many of you have been very generous in your financial and moral support and those who donated last year can be pleased that the computers we purchased with your funds are being used by our young students in conjunction with Reading Eggs online literacy program. 

In short - its working, we're growing and your concern is making the difference.

 For 2014 I'm raising funds to support salaries for our trainee teachers in the ELC - critical staff assisting our teachers with children aged 4-7 years old each school day.  I hope to cover the cost of one trainee teacher for a year through my pain and your generosity!