Children in North Somerset already know a bit about South Africa after the Zakhele Drama Group toured schools in the area in 2009. This sparked a lot of interest in learning more about South Africa and the area that is home to the Zakhele Group.

That’s why Za got together with North Somerset Council to put in a bid to the British Council for funding to form partnerships between our schools and theirs. In September 2010 we heard that the bid was successful and by December, our first joint project was launched- a joint exhibition of children’s wishes for the world on World AIDs Day.

The Global School Partnerships Programme is an initiative of the Department for International Development.  Za Foundation and North Somerset put in a successful bid for a grant to support the school partnerships.  The grant will enable staff from South Africa and North Somerset to get things started with a visit to the other country. The visits will take place in February and June of 2011 and will involve:

• Tours of local partner schools
• Learning about local education projects and ways of working
• Coming up with ideas for joint education projects between schools in both countries.
Each partnership will also be able to apply for separate funding to visit their partner school. This can be used to help develop joint learning projects.
Za Foundation will support the schools in North Somerset and Thembalethu, our charity partner, will support the schools in South Africa.