The Lesaoana Intermediate School in the rural eastern Free State village of Sehlajaneng boasts a computer center that is set to change the learning experience of its pupils, thanks to the Telkom Foundation. The equipment comes from the Telkom Foundation's Adopt-A-Project programme.

The Aids Programme of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCAP) donated school fees and uniforms worth N$15 000 to orphans and other vulnerable children in the Rehoboth area on Monday. The beneficiaries were identified through ELCAP's home-based care programmes.

A high-profile delegation from Japan will visit the former Transkei on Friday to mark the completion of 20 schools, thanks to R62m (7,5 million US dollars) in Japanese Grant Aid. Funding of R62m for a further 20 schools was then granted, mainly in the Umtata-area (Alfred Nzo district).

The Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign, responding to issues raised in community meetings, has opened a school at Andile Nose Community Centre, in Govan Mbeki Road, Khayelitsha. This school is a response to the exclusion of students from government schools because they cannot afford school fees, or because they are too old.

When the author Aminatta Forna returned to Rogbonko, the village in Sierra Leone where her late father was born, she found a community too poor to educate its children. So she decided to found a school.

Heavy flooding in 2000 and 2001 and a subsequent drought and food crisis have had an extraordinarily negative impact on children in Mozambique, Save the Children Fund (SCF) said in a new report.

Officials in the district of Lira, northern Uganda, have launched an appeal to finance 36 temporary "learning centres" for children displaced by insecurity caused by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is to inject CA $20 million (about US $13.2 million) into a project to support education in Mozambique through the procurement of learning and teaching materials.

Malnutrition rates in Ethiopia are gradually increasing despite widespread efforts to help millions of people facing starvation in the country, according to aid organisations.

ISGM is a USAID program implemented by Pact and MWENGO. The program supports the strengthening of the capacity of Regional African Organisations-Consortia-Associations working in Food Security (FS) and/or Conflict, Mitigation and Response (CPMR) in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) through promotion of innovation and increased strategic co-ordination. As part of the process towards the achievement of this objective and to fill in the gaps identified through organisational capacity assessments, Pact/MWENGO offer and support training workshops on strategic planning; boards and governance; ideology and identity; food security; conflict prevention, mitigation and response, organisational effectiveness and participatory project development and management.

This conference stems from the need for HIV/AIDS interventions to be based on sound information about the medium and long-term demographic, social and economic consequences of HIV/AIDS. Towards that end, the organisers have invited 50 researchers to present papers derived from rigorous empirical research.

The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative publishes a thematic bi-annual human rights journal called "The Defender". We are currently looking for information and submissions on the theme 'Human Rights and Freedom of Expression'.

Applications are now open for the III International Human Rights Colloquium to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from May 26 to June 6, 2003. The theme of the Colloquium is The Rule of Law and the Construction of Peace. The primary objective of the Colloquium is to strengthen new leadership and to enhance the capacity of human rights activists to improve the performance of their own organisations.

UNDP Sudan Country Office is in a transitional phase, having terminated many projects that were initiated in its earlier cycles of assistance. It has prepared a forward looking Country Co-operation Framework (CCF) covering the period 2002-2006, which has been approved by the Executive Board in September 2002. The new programme focuses on peace planning and peace building and improving governance and environmental management.

LWOB is seeking lawyers interested in a)assisting with development of the project, b)assisting with the drafting of funding proposals, c)being a link in a Lawyer to Lawyer (L2L)linkage with South African lawyers or d)travelling to South Africa (possibly self funded) to assist with an evaluation of the problem and potential solutions.

Oversee all project implementation; Meet regularly with local authorities to foster good will and support for all project activities; Ensure that all IRC projects are implemented in a timely and professional manner; Implement/revise and maintain a regular system of project evaluation and progress monitoring; Promote professional working relationships and resolve staff conflicts and concerns in a timely manner.

NGOs and humanitarian actors have highlighted the need to include displaced farm workers in emergency relief programmes in Zimbabwe. They also pointed out the need to include urban areas in nutrition assessments - as urbanites struggle to cope amid food shortages and a failing economy.

The governments of Sweden and the United Republic of Tanzania signed an agreement on 31 January under which Sweden will provide 455 million kronor (US $50 million) to support Tanzania's 2003-06 Primary Education Development Plan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reunited 140 children with their families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a two-day operation last week. "All the children were reunited with their families, from whom they had been separated for several months - or several years in some cases - owing to the conflict," the ICRC reported on 30 January.

Angolan authorities would have to show a greater commitment to financial transparency at an upcoming international donor conference if it is to succeed in securing the external support needed to kick-start its national reconstruction programme, analysts said on Monday.