Amazing Grace

It is with great sadness that we reflect on the news that Grace tragically died last week in a car accident in Uganda. Grace was on her way back from a Gorilla Trek with a former Acklam Grange pupil and Meserani Project sponsor, and it is fitting that Grace’s last day on earth was spent looking after someone who shared Grace’s devotion to the young people of East Africa.

Grace first became involved with The Meserani Project back in 2007 when she was the tour guide for a group of Acklam Grange School pupils who were touring Kenya and Tanzania. She was with the group when they visited Meserani Juu Primary School, and decided to raise funds to build two new classrooms – it was on this day that The Meserani Project was born. Two years later when Acklam Grange School were struggling to find a tour company to facilitate another visit to Kenya and Tanzania, Grace stepped in and provided a safari truck and crew to ensure that the trip went ahead. Along with Jason Smith, Grace then took the bold step of creating the company Kupenda Africa, and since then their company has facilitated five Acklam Grange School Trips, two Virgin Media Trips and two Meserani Project Adult Trips. She went to great lengths to let everybody know that Kupenda Africa was created because of The Meserani Project, and her passion for the well-being of the young people that we support was a fundamental and endearing feature of hers. She devoted so much of her life and energy into The Meserani Project, and everybody owes so much to her. Grace was a one in a million person, who gave so much of her life to the work of The Meserani Project, and to countless people from the U.K. who were so well looked after by Kupenda Africa. She has left a hole that can never be filled. She was truly Amazing Grace.