St. Johns Kiwanis donates dictionaries to needy school in
Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Zimbabwe Africa

120 seventh graders in Zimbabwe receiving their dictionaries

One hundred twenty-six seventh graders of Hartzell Primary School in Mutare Zimbabwe were gifted with dictionaries donated by the Kiwanis Club of St. Johns as part of The Dictionary Project a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage children to learn new words so that they will be able to use the English language effectively. For these seventh graders from poor families the dictionaries represented the only book they could call their own or even had in their home. The dictionaries were delivered as part of an 18 day Volunteer in Mission trip to Zimbabwe where a team of 27 led by club president Reverend Gordon Schleicher. Team members taught English to students and teachers. In addition to the dictionaries the team took teaching supplies and books for the school library. Although the primary school has a well equipped library as a result of book donations from the United States over the last ten years, the library books are only able to be read in the library or in the classroom.

Rev. Gordon Schleicher
President, Kiwanis Club of St. Johns Michigan
1006 Hampshire Dr, St. Johns. MI 48879