School Starter Kit; £7

I love the Simpsons - Matt Groenig is a genius!
Little things like the different sofa moments, or like the different mantras Bart is inscribing reluctantly on the class board each time the opening credits run show the attention that goes into making The Simpsons such a universally admired programme.

Bart probably wouldn't thank you for this particular present (although Lisa might), but a lot of children and their families all over the world would.

• 1 in 5 adults cannot read or write.

• 98% of these live in developing countries

• 2/3 of them are women.

I've been able to read since I was two or three, so I can't imagine or remember what it's like not to be able to read - especially now as so much communication is done in a textual medium rather than spoken (although 90% of the world's population has never made a telephone call. Mind you, over 2 billion people, that's around 40% of all of us, still can't access electricity and it's been around for about 200 years now).

Knowlege is power - and it's the poorest and most ground down of the world's population who need the power that knowlege is. Pens, pencils, jotters, school-bags, uniforms, chalk, and (yes) even boards are some of the basic tools in this 'starter kit' that make an inestimable contribution to teachers' teaching and so to pupils' learning.

Bart Simpson would probably be delighted at the thought of being one of the world's 110million children of primary-school age who don't go to school. Nepal sees 44% of its children complete primary school - Angola only has 4% get through to that level. Common ground between these two? War & War. Makes you groan audibly, doesn't it?

[ CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]