A North Kent College tutor and two former students are on the trip of a lifetime as they head to South Africa to be part of a project that will transform the lives of thousands of children.
Phil Miles, who is a lecturer in brickwork and multitrades at the College, has been joined by two former bricklaying students Freddie Bishop and Josh Cherry, who both graduated from the College this summer, for Mellon Educate’s ‘’Building Blitz’.
The project sees hundreds of volunteers come together to renovate schools, build classrooms and more in South African Townships, all in the space of seven days.
This year over 300 volunteers have travelled to Cape Town, with the aim of building 20 classrooms, two playgrounds, four covered shelters and a kitchen.
The trip is being made possible thanks to the sponsorship of local businessman Mark Lindop. He has provided financial support to enable staff and students to be part of this project since 2017.
Phil, Freddie and Josh flew out to South Africa on Friday (17 November), and began work the next day before the new facilities are handed over to the School this Friday (24 November). Phil will arrive home in the early hours of Monday morning before coming straight back to work at the College!
Phil expressed his excitement about the trip, saying: “I am very grateful to Mark Lindop who has given me another opportunity to go to Cape Town to help build new Classrooms within the Schools of the Township of Khayelitsha.”
“I was lucky to go back in 2018 and it was a very humbling experience and it does really make a difference to thousands of schoolkids, I would like to also say a big thankyou to North Kent College for allowing me to go again, Mellon Educate, who are a fantastic charity, and everyone who has made a donation.”
Mellon Educate is a charity that was founded in 2002 with the aim of bringing literacy to hundreds of thousands of children across South Africa.
Since its inception it has built houses for over 175,000 homeless people in South Africa’s poorest townships, and built or renovated 36 schools, which has provided improved education for 50,000 children.
As part of its commitment to improving education standards in the country, it launched The Mellon Educate Literacy Programme in 2018 which provides one-to-one tutoring in Literacy Hubs built by Mellon Educate volunteers.
To find out more about Mellon Educate visit its website.
At North Kent College we run a number of construction courses, all based at our Gravesend campus.
We have dedicated facilities for Brickwork, Painting and Decorating, Carpentry and Multitrades, and all courses are delivered in workshop environments that replicate the experience of working in your chosen industry.
You can find out more by visiting the Construction courses page of our website.
Pictured in the photo are, from left to right, Phil Miles, Mark Lindop, Josh Cherry and Freddie Bishop.