PHILIPPA Jacobs is ecstatic. The charity she founded has just been granted £2,400 to pay for six new computers and a community-learning classroom at a school in Tanzania.

Since setting up Champion Chanzige in January, the charity has connected electricity to Chanzige Primary School in Kisaware near Dar es Salaam, equipped its classrooms with whiteboards and donated hundreds of books and writing materials to its pupils.

Philippa, 47, plans to set up a poultry farm that would not only be a practical teaching resource, but also generate income for the school.

She said: “Although it is an unpaid job, it is the most rewarding and satisfying job that I have done.

“I am astonished every day at the generosity of UK citizens and it really makes a difference to the Tanzanian kids. They are without doubt some of the happiest children I have ever met.”

The West Sussex administrative assistant, from Grosvenor Road, East Grinstead, visited Tanzania in October last year after being made redundant.

Her younger son, George, had taught at Chanzige a year earlier as part of a student exchange programme between Imberhourne Secondary School, East Grinstead, and Menaki High School in Tanzania.

“I had taken a children’s encyclopaedia with me and a little boy of about eight stared at the front cover for about two minutes. He was so engrossed.

“That was definitely a turning point. The children out there consider education to be a privilege, while kids here take it for granted,” she said.

Philippa, who worked for Lloyds Bowmaker Finance before a 16-year stint in primary schools including Turners Hill and Baldwins Hill, says her background has helped her to communicate the charity’s efforts, particularly in schools.

On World Book Day, 400 books donated by children of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Redhill arrived in Chanzige.

In June, eight-year-old Elodie Ansell, from Station Road, East Grinstead, ran four miles along the old railway track from East Grinstead to Forest Row and raised £500.

A month later, she and her schoolmates at Estcots Primary School donated 253 cases containing pencils, pens, rulers and erasers for their African counterparts.

Children at Our Lady Queen of Heaven School, Crawley, also raised £300 from a run and there has been a car boot sale, fabric heart sales and other events including a bike ride on the Isle of Wight where Philippa’s husband, Simon, and his friends raised a total of £1600.

Describing what his mum is doing as “absolutely fantastic”, George, now an engineering student at Cardiff University, said: “It shows that one person can make a difference.” Philippa who works part-time for Conference and Travel Publications, hopes the charity can help other African schools in future.