The text I received from Headmaster George earlier today.

A few hours ago my phone buzzed. It was a text message from George, the Headmaster at Simakakata Community School.

“Thank you very much. We appliciate your hard work.”

Given today’s general levels of excitement at LearnAsOne and in Southern Zambia I’m sure we can all forgive his spelling. Mine is often equally as bad!

Let me rewind 24 hours

Yesterday I received a cheque from Shaun Connell following his Sky dive in late September. This brought us to within £170.24 of the fundraising target for the first classroom. I posted messages on twitter and Facebook to this effect and our supporters took over. Within 24 hours the target had been reached!

I’d like to thank Claire, Adam, Simon, Nina, Gloria, Rachel, Cathryn, Maurice, Zac, Scuff and Laura for their donations which nudged the totaliser over the target. And of course to all the rest of you who have donated your time, skills and money to make this all possible.

So what happens next?

As soon as your doantions reach us from Just Giving (7-10 days) we’ll transfer the money for the first classroom to our partner Response Network in Zambia.

In the meantime they will finalise the costs of the raw materials such as cement, doors, windows and roofing sheets. And a document of understanding will be drawn up with the community at Simakakata giving them 6 months to build the classroom once the raw materials are delivered.

We’ll also work out the best way to keep you updated during the build and, after a little celebration tonight, continue fundraising for the remaining classrooms, teacher’s houses and water that the community needs.

A message from the kids

To sign off this post I’ll hand you over to the children of Simakakata.