We were delighted to be approached by World Challenge at the beginning of the year who were interested in sending a team of 15-18 year olds to Mugurameno. Team Challenge expedition is an exhilarating and demanding 4 week expedition which is preceded by 15-20 month team building and skills development programme. The trip, which involves each student raising £3000, includes treks and cultural adventures and helps improve confidence and self esteem.

Students from the Corsham School in Wiltshire led by Alastair McLeod, Janet Grant and Andy Griffiths spent 5 days at Mugurameno camping behind the school block, cooking for themselves and sharing the water pump and drop toilets with the community! Their project brief was to install playground equipment, bought by the charity, at both the Basic and Community School and to paint murals on one of the classrooms.

We were astonished when we visited them on their last day to see their creative handy work. Their beautiful murals had totally transformed the school. Football and netball posts, climbing frame, seesaw and swings were successfully cemented into the ground behind the Basic School and the community school was given a slide to occupy the children’s time during playtimes. Everyone was thrilled with their new equipment and the headmaster, Alan Bwalya informed us that they were the first school in the district to have such equipment.

The students then went on to spend a night at Conservation Lower Zambezi to learn about environmental issues and to enjoy proper showers and bunk beds!

MBSCT would like to take this opportunity to thank the students and teachers for all their hard work on this project and to Anna, Adrian and Ernest at CLZ for organising a fantastic afternoon. We look forward to hosting a similar project next year.