"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." This is the new slogan which the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government has adopted in order to popularise its ambitious free primary education programme (FPE) policy. The free and compulsory primary education for Kenyan children, which was one of the key pre-election promises which brought NARC to power in December 2002, has proved not only to be expensive, but also difficult to implement.

The number of older people above 60 years throughout the world is increasing drastically. By 2050, they are expected to reach the 2 billion mark, which will be more than that of children under the age of 14. In Africa, traditional living arrangements are changing and values that used to ensure that older people were cared for and protected are crumbling. All too often, older people are the victims of abuse even by the very institutions that are supposed to protect them.

Dot Wampach and Emma Lawler might be in their seventies, but that did not stop them and 500 other volunteers from raising money for the Berea Gardens retirement home. Selling goodies and veggies at a tuckshop, they raised R24000 from selling gifts and food parcels that donors offered for the home. With the other volunteers they also sewed, knitted, baked and did repairs and maintenance.

The Government of Japan is to extend a total amount of US $ 67,614 (approximately ¢567,959,600) under the Japanese Government Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects (GGP) to three communities for the construction of students hostels and a clinic respectively.