Wow… what a year 2022 was! As we hit 2023 running with exciting news to start the year, we’ve taken a look back over everything you have helped us achieve during the past 12 months. It’s a phenomenal list so we’ve picked out some highlights for you and have compiled an infographic in an effort to try to condense it further.

• January started with the long-awaited reopening of schools in Uganda following their Covid-19 closures in March 2020. Happiness also followed at Ng’ate Primary School in Kenya as they installed a new jiko cooking stove.

• In February, the Kenyan Porridge Clubs programme expanded as the team at Watoto Kwanza welcomed two new schools: Kiama and Juja Farm Primary Schools.

• March brought International Women’s Day and a focus on the Education All Month, Every Month programme.

• In May, the Quentin Junior Academy in Tanzania had electricity installed in their nursery school classrooms for the first time.

• During June’s small Charity celebrations, we took part in our first ever podcast thanks to Databasix, and fundraiser Allie Maybrey launched her #Project50 plans which included the London Marathon.

• August welcomed the installation of a new toilet block at the Joy Children’s Centre in Kenya.

• In October, we celebrated World Porridge Day with porridge breakfasts held at local business networking groups and in supporters’ homes.

• November saw our logos adorning the football shirts of the Tower Hill Vixens before the phenomenon that was the Big Give Christmas Challenge where your donations paid for the Kenyan Porridge Clubs programme for three whole months.

• In their first full year of trading since Covid, December ended with our three charity shops having had a bumper year, made even more pleasing because it means more people are reusing and recycling. Not only is this great for us, but it is of course also great for the environment.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement to end the year, we were delighted to receive a grant from the EA Foundation to establish a Library Hub at Rowa Primary School in Zimbabwe just before Christmas. We will share more about this in the coming weeks as construction commences. Suffice to say it’s a hugely exciting project that will open up learning opportunities in a small rural community and begin to instil a culture of reading. It feels like a true partnership between Mwana Trust, EA Foundation and African Children’s Fund and we can’t wait to see it come to life.

As ever, our partners simply couldn’t have achieved much of this without you. Your kindness, generosity and ongoing support has made so many of the above successes possible so we THANK YOU very much indeed.

Our final thanks are reserved for our UK volunteers and the wonderful partners we work with in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. You are the ones who make all of this happen and we hope you too can look back on 2022 with pride. We can’t wait to see what 2023 brings!