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Marguerite and Gregor Kennedy

We are serving as Peace Corps volunteers in South Africa. In our rural village of Seirappies, we work with a small school called " Kgotsoro Primary School." It has about 200 students in grades K through 7.

This is a very impoverished area. Most children live with grandparents, because they are orphaned or a parent is away in a city where there may be jobs. Many families live on less than a dollar per day.

Our niece spoke highly of Trees for Life and suggested we contact them. We initially thought we might request trees, as fruit trees would be such a blessing here. But when we were here a little longer, we came to believe that books would be more immediately beneficial for the children.

In our village, less than 15% of students pass their final exam. Without this exam, even low-level jobs are often not available.

The biggest challenge is that the exams are written in English. That is not the children's first language. Even their teachers do not speak English well. So a lack of English literacy is imprisoning these children in poverty.

We wrote to Trees for Life and asked if their "Books for Life" program could provide some reading books. We explained that children's picture books would be best, even for our older students, as the pictures and simple stories would help them learn English.

Trees for Life responded positively. They sent us a box of 30 books to start with.

That was about six months ago. What has happened since then may best be expressed by one of our 7th grade students. She has better English than others in her group, and wrote this letter.