The Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust
The Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust support a number of education programmes in southern Africa which enable people to transform their region.
Merrian Women’s Club
The Merrian Women’s Club is a Zambian organisation that acts as a forum for rural women and advocates gender equality. We sponsored three of their students to attend university, and provided text books and revision kits for an ACCA student. All were from extremely disadvantaged rural backgrounds and would not have been able to benefit from tertiary education without our support.
Farm Orphan Support Trust
The Farm Orphan Support Trust gives orphaned and other vulnerable children in Zimbabwe access to education. Our support enabled 360 primary and 75 secondary pupils to continue their schooling, and trained four teachers to provide emotional support in the absence of parents.
South African Scholarships
The Canon Collins Trust has an extensive programme of support to enable scholars to study in South Africa, gaining skills which will be vital for their countries’ development.
We supported eight of these scholarships. One of those to benefit was Limpho Letsela, whose mother was a housemaid and father a subsistence farmer. She had a passion for the environment and studied to become a biology teacher before becoming a researcher on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, achieving a Masters, and then using her skills working in the field of sustainable development. We funded her PhD in environmental management, which has equipped her to manage the region’s precious water resources, pass on her skills and knowledge, and save lives and the environment.
Giyani Science Centre
The Giyani Science Centre in Limpopo provides low cost, high quality maths and science education, reaching tens of thousands of students across the province. Many students visit the centre itself, and others are visited in their remote schools by the Centre’s mobile laboratory. Their flexible and imaginative approach has made it an invaluable resource in the region.