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School gardening is a time-tabled activity for the children attending Siamatika Primary School in Southern Zambia. And why not? – virtually all of the kids in the 510 pupil school come from farming backgrounds, and those that don’t usually have some land at home where their family grow maize and other crops.

A sun-dried vegetable project is providing the springboard for a Zambian women’s group to support new enterprise development for their members. Members of the 20-strong self-help group in Lushoma, Zambia, have seen their incomes increase, and have begun to save part of their increased earnings to set up a savings programme.

When 22-year old Clifford Siamatika completed high school two years ago, it was a hugely important milestone for his proud mother Lillian and her husband Ken.

By making your donation through the Big Give Christmas Challenge, you could double your money for Self Help Africa. If you’d like to make your pounds go further and help more African families change their lives, you can make a Big Give donation on 5th, 6th or 7th December 2013.

Close to 20,000 rural poor farmers across Africa will receive training and enterprise support following a decision by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission (JOAC) to back three new Self Help Africa projects. JOAC has awarded almost £400,000 for development projects in in Togo, Kenya and Malawi.

A group of runners whose participation in Africa’s largest road race was cancelled at the weekend amid heightened security concerns responded by organising their own event. The 20-strong group had been scheduled to compete in the annual Great Ethiopia Run in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, but following international warnings that the event was a potential target for terrorist attack, they took to the countryside for a quickly organised alternative.

More than 250 guests from across print, broadcast and online media filled Dublin’s fashionable Guinness Storehouse for the second annual ‘Media Night’ benefit in support of Self Help Africa and Irish Motor Neurone Disease. The gala event attracted representatives from across a broad cross section of Irish journalism, with RTE, The Irish Times, Independent Newspapers, The Daily Mail, The Irish Star, Sunday Business Post, Today FM, TV3, The Irish News, Business Plus, The Irish Sun, Irish Examiner, Sunday Times and Storyful online platform amongst the attendance.

China continues to play a critical role in economic development in the 21st century across the African continent. The vital role that Asia’s fastest growing economy can play extends to agriculture too, as Self Help Africa’s Kenya director David Otieno learned when he attended a recent Africa agricultural conference, hosted in Beijing.

Africa was the winner in Manhattan recently, when almost 600 people gathered for a glittering event in Chelsea Piers to support entrepreneurship across the continent.

The event – held to support Self Help Africa – attracted a host of celebrities, including noted restaurateur and author Marcus Samuelsson (pictured), who was the inaugural recipient of the Spirit of Africa award at the event.