Swaziland - Mzimpofu

St. Joseph's School in Mzimpofu, Swaziland is the largest of three African schools supported by the Trust. Situated just outside Swaziland's largest city Manzini, it has over 2000 students of all denominations with a further 500 children attending its primary school. St. Joseph's Servite mission was founded in 1914. The mission aims to provide a diverse education for all.

Swaziland is a small and especially poor country. It has been blighted by the HIV virus, with one of the highest infection rates in the world. Many of St Joseph's children have been directly affected by the problems of HIV. The school supports these children with their schooling, their board and help for their families.

St. Joseph's is unique in Swaziland. It is the only facility in the country to educate the blind and children with the most severe learning disabilities. The school also support physically disabled children. All the children are taught in a fully integrated way by specially trained teachers. St. Joseph's struggles to find funding. The demands of this integrated education mean that the school requires investment in its resources, and in turn it needs financial help from charities such as ours.

St Joseph's mission also offers assistance to other local Swazi schools and communities. Until recently in Mkhaya, one of the local villages, over 70 orphaned children were being taught under the shade of a tree. With St. Joseph's help, the village have built a classroom, appointed a teacher and now provide three meals a day for the children.

One of the biggest challenges the St Joseph's experiences is storing enough water. After a lengthy drought in 2006, the school had to close four weeks early. The first project that we are funding with the Trust is to build three large water tanks to ensure clean drinking water for the year. We are very grateful for the help of the Rotary Club in Swaziland, particularly Ton Vriend and Harry Nxumalo, for all their invaluable help with our work with St. Joseph's.