The Coopers are three generations of a family travelling through Africa northwards from Cape Town in South Africa before making their way back to their home in Dorset.
We received an email from them in March, giving some information about themselves and their project.
Mandy Cooper wrote:“The journey will commence in August.
Our family own and run a field study business in Hooke in Dorset. Through the business we have contacts with many schools in the UK and we hope to link some of them with children’s projects operating along the route we shall be travelling.
We see from ‘Stuff Your Rucksack’ website that you are involved with such a project and wondered whether you would be interested in being included on the list we are compiling of charities to support. We plan to present interested UK schools with a list of projects that may wish to support along with the individual project’s requirements. The UK school would select the project to be supported along with the gift/gifts they wish to donate. We would then purchase the items in the locality of the charity and, nearer to the date, arrange a mutually convenient time for us to visit and donate the gifts. We hope this will bring benefit not only to the different charities but also provide a way of UK children being directly involved in ‘giving’.” 
The Cooper family visited Aquinoe last week.Josphat says:
“We are excited with the Cooper family visit. They paid our electricity bill worth KES22,000, water bill worth KES15,000, bought 20 bags of maize and 5 bags of beans worth KES92,000 and donated balls, pencils, tricycles, ropes and hoops.
They are also sponsoring two children and paid their fees for two terms
The school is deeply grateful for the donation.”
The visit sounds very successful.
We would like to give our thanks to the Cooper family for their wonderful idea and to the donor schools and pupils for their generosity.