Koelenhof Primary, WC, South Africa

Precious Little racked up its third school at the end of November, and I've just a got a few minutes to update the blog with a few pics and some basic info.




The school is near Paarl, in the Western Cape of South Africa and is attended mostly by Kleurling and Xhosa kids. The surrounding region is famous for its stupendous scenery and its even more stupendous wines. Most of the kids' parents are farm labourers on the nearby vineyards and farms.

The kids were a delight - especially for Leonie because they spoke Afrikaans! Not so easy for me to communicate, however, as my Afrikaans vocabulary mostly consists of animal names and swear words.

Thanks to Este Mellet and Mr Manders for helping to set this visit up.

Will post more later on this school - gotta dash now.




Love

Nick and Leonie (nr Mussel Bay, South Africa)

Lomongo Masaai School, Kenya

The second Precious Little school is set in true storybook Africa. If you want to gaze at Kilimanjaro at sunrise, stay in a mud hut and listen to elephants trumpeting in the night, or take a walk through the thorntrees with a noble, spear-wielding warrior, Lomongo is the place.



First, a bit about the Masaai...

By nature, the Masaai are nomadic herders. For at least the last couple of hundred years, they've been grazing and breeding cattle in the region of the southern Rift Valley, moving on to greener pastures (literally) whenever necessary.






But the Masaai in the region of Kilimanjaro are no longer free to roam where they like. Hemmed in on all sides by national parks to which they are forbidden entry, many Masaai have been forced to put their nomadic lifestyle behind them. They've made more-or-less permanent farming settlements, growing beans and cassava. Lomongo is one of these.

Lomongo is really just a sparse collection of mud huts, united by footpaths and rutted roads. If the crops fail or the cows die - and increasingly, they do - the people don't eat. For the first time, the Masaai are beginning to understand the need for education. The Masaai school we visited is a reflection of the changing world to which the Masaai must adapt.

Douglas and Tipape started the school earlier this year, and already have over 90 primary school kids enrolled. Many of the kids had never been to school until this one opened its doors.



School fees started at $US1.25 per month, but this had to be reduced to 75 cents because too many parents couldn't afford the higher rate. That tells you a little about how much money is in the area.

Getting the kids to draw well was actually very challenging. They don't draw on paper very often, so some of them were a little bewildered. But the natural artists among them soon rose to the challenge. Giraffes, elephants, huts and cows (of course) were the most favoured subjects. There's also a very convincing goat (or perhaps its a donkey).

Anyway, I'll post more about the school and Lomongo after Christmas. Enjoy the pictures... and a huge thanks to Douglas and Tipape for looking after us in Kenya.

Love
Nick and Leonie (currently in South Africa).

Mangamba School, Mtwara, Tanzania

Precious Little has begun...

On Friday, October 26, we visited Mangamba School in South Eastern Tanzania.

Contact was made through a UK NGO called Breakfast Club. They do a marvellous job in providing breakfast to the kids at Mangamba to encourage attendance and to aid concentration.

The school is set in the rolling hills behind Mtwara. The area is inhabited mostly by the Makonde people, the majority of whom are subsistence farmers. In the school grounds, guinea fowl peck under mango trees and from the road nearby you can glimpse the Indian Ocean. In many ways it's an idyllic setting, but its far from paradise. HIV and malaria are big problems here, and Mtwara region is one of the poorest and most remote in the country.

There are about 250 kids at the school. We asked 30 of them to draw their best friends, their families and their home. They took the task very seriously and drew with painstaking care.



The drawings we collected, along with those from a Maasai school in Kenya and an as-yet-undetermined school in South Africa, will be sold as part of the Precious Little Exhibition in Sydney next year.

At Mangamba, the proceeds from the exhibition will be controlled by Breakfast Club - they plan to buy a cow for the school so that breakfast programme can be more self-sufficient. There are also some classrooms that don't have flooring, and some without desks, so perhaps the money can help with that.

Thanks to Romy and Katy for setting it up, and thanks to everyone who has already promised to bring themselves and their wallets to the Precious Little Exhibition.

Next stop, Rombo, Kenya.

Please post comments!

Love

Nick and Leonie

what is precious little?

It's an exhibition of drawings by African schoolkids

70 unique artworks.
3 schools that need a hand.
1 night when you can make a difference.

Precious Little brings together students’ drawings from three very different schools in Africa – one in Kenya, one in Tanzania, and one in South Africa.

Whether the kids involved are Masaai, Makonde, Xhosa or Kleurling all of them have something in common: they come from schools that lack basic resources. Things like textbooks. Desks. Even pencils.

That’s why every cent of profit from Precious Little will be sent directly to the schools and used to improve them, bringing results the kids can see and touch.

The drawings in Precious Little are currently being collected by husband and wife team Leonie Blignaut and Nick Long. They are personally visiting each school, meeting the kids, commissioning the artworks and recording the whole experience.

According to Nick, providing monetary assistance to African schools is only part of Precious Little’s aim.

“It’s not only a case of helping the schools to buy better supplies,” he says. “By exhibiting and selling the drawings here in Australia, we hope to send a message to the kids that what they make can have value.”

The project title Precious Little refers to the currently meagre resources in the schools, and also to the artists.

“If things are going to improve in Africa, it’s going to be up to these little ones to do it,” says Leonie. “So the kids themselves are precious, and so is their education.”

All drawings and photographs at Precious Little are for sale.

By making a purchase you’ll not only be gaining a unique piece of art, you’ll be helping young Africans to help themselves.

Precious Little is an initiative of Precious Few Pty Ltd. Precious Few Pty Ltd is a creative production company which also organises not-for-profit events (like this one).

Stay tuned for updates on this project, and contact info@preciousfew.com.au if you want more details.