This morning I went with the charity we support (IPA) – details on our website – to donate the many clothes, toys, shoes and bags that were donated to us last Summer.

I wanted to share these pictures with you, to say thanks for your support. Whether you donated clothes or have just supported us over the years, thank you, it all helps as you can see…

We went to a ‘location’ called Kintryre, just near Lake Chivero (about an hour out of Harare)… Although I am 8 months pregnant myself, so getting around is not easy and a tad dangerous at the moment with Cholera, we distributed over 12 sacks of clothing etc, so at least everyone got something. I had already distributed some clothing to struggling artists and their families on our tours around the country, so this, what was left, was distributed today.

IPA offer a food programme there and they suggested this location as a ‘needy’ settlement’. Indeed many of the children we saw had old tattered clothes on, and nearly all barefoot! And I was told these were their ‘best clothes’ as they knew we were coming… I thank you all for giving me the opportunity aswell to give something back to the people of Zimbabwe. Although we are given some donations in our Donation Box at our exhibitions, which helps go towards the shipping costs of sending the clothes over, it is never enough and we always have to top this up. This year our shipping fee came to GBP 1,200 – our donated funds were GBP 500.

The school teachers here at government schools are not being paid anymore by the government, so many schools have closed down until the situation improves with their payment, much to the detriment of the children, as you can imagine. I met some of the teachers today, who said they work part time for the neighbouring farms to support themselves and they were there today to help organise the food programme – where porridge is given to the children at least.

IPA’s details are on our website, should you wish to get intouch with them, their details have changed – I am more than happy to give you their Directors email address should you wish for more details. We choose this charity as it is a community based charity, rather than working with minorities, it works with the whole peri-urban settlement which of course also includes AIDS sufferers, orphans, widows and the elderly.

This year we will of course be collecting again, so if you can, please keep hold of your old things – clothes, toys, shoes, old glasses, old technology (laptops, cell phones) etc. And try to bring them to our warehouse in Windsor or one of our shows. We’ll email you soon about those!

Thank you again on behalf of everyone today, I wish I could show you how grateful everyone was (for such a little) in a photo!