In March 1998, during Jan and Nan Nieber's visit to their son Rogier in Schoemansdal, 'the aid' started with the purchase of a Bernina sewing machine for the grade 9 teacher. Her dream: equipping the girls who could not continue their education with skills that would allow them to earn money. After that came the request for TVs, which, together with satellite dishes and video recorders, could bring the school TV programs into the classrooms. At that time, there was also a lack of basic materials, and teachers were delighted with large sheets of colored cardboard, scissors, colored pencils, etc., to work with. Four years later we saw that the government was providing sufficient amounts of teaching materials. Goal achieved.

PS. To everyone's great disappointment and anger, the sewing machine was stolen after two weeks and was never seen again. A good lesson... store everything safely.