What would your first reaction be if, when arriving at the shopping centre, a filthy street kid in rags were to push his hand through the driver’s window in front of your face?

I wanted to wind the window up.

I was confronted with this situation in 2005 in Chingola, Zambia and everything about this aggressive, smelly boy repelled me. Then I realised that he was really just another of God’s children like many of the children I was teaching, except that he didn’t attend school.

With the help of a friend, Alison and I started The Limapela Foundation for the benefit of education in poorer communities in Zambia. In 2009 we purchased a privately owned farm school and established it as The Limapela Cedric’s Basic School for the benefit of the local community.

The school initially had no electricity or running water and there were few books or teaching materials. The overwhelming generosity of donors around the world has allowed us to build a new classroom block and a beautiful new playground. Water boreholes have been drilled and electricity has been connected.

The teachers and pupils are proud of their school, and it is a pleasure to work with them to improve their learning environment.