Barlborough Hall and Makubmi’s link began in October 2005 when Alan Fernandes visited Barlborough Hall to highlight the plight of Makumbi Orphanage in Zimbabwe and ask for the school’s support.

As a first step, children from Barlborough Hall filled shoe boxes with a range of items that would help the children at Makumbi with their work and play. Approximately two hundred boxes were collected and shipped out. Later they received many letters of thanks from the children at Makumbi Orphanage. At the end of 2005, Barlborough Hall sent out their school calendar. This attractive calendar has self-portraits of every child in the school and allows the children at Makumbi to get a glimpse of who they are communicating with. The “Make Poverty History” campaign also predominated in 2005.

This year there has been a shift in focus: Barlborough Hall will still be linked to Makumbi Orphanage but this link has been extended to include Makumbi Primary School. It is a school that is in much need of attention. There are very limited resources, no electricity and rudimentary furniture that was installed in the 1950s still remains. In fact, the current headmaster could point to the very desk he sat at in 1958 when he was a young boy. The move to include the primary school will hopefully strengthen the relationship between Barlborough Hall and Makumbi as the shift allows children of a similar age to communicate with each other through educational material.

In June 2006, Father Joe Arimoso, a Zimbabwean priest studying in England, went out to visit Makumbi. When he returned to England, he brought with him photos and an update of events at the school.

Makumbi Primary School has a desire to communicate with the wider world. A year ago they wanted to submit entries to an international arts competition but unfortunately they did not have the required paints. They did not, however, let this deter them when creating alphabet posters for Barlborough Hall. The lack of resources led to them to use what was available: Makumbi has plenty of sandy soil so images were created by gluing the sand onto cardboard. In addition to these works of art, some of the pupils sewed intricate cotton thread drawings on to cardboard.