Recent Developments July 2009 to December 2009
September 4 2010
There have been important developments in our three main areas of activity: the Shri Mgungani Learning and Resource Centre, the students whose education WATU is sponsoring, and the movement of educational materials from Europe to Tanzania.
Events have moved quickly since July of this year. The shell of the science laboratory at Shiri Mgungani is now complete and work is progressing on equipping it. We have obtained a great deal of advice from other schools in the Moshi area and from science teachers. Benches are being constructed by local carpenters and a £1000 grant from The Cicely Foundation in the UK means that we will be able to equip the lab with at least the basic materials. We hope to be ready for the beginning of term 2010 and to be able to welcome local schools there.
A great deal, though, depends on the arrival of water and electricity at the Shiri site. As I write we are expecting news from the electricity company later this week. The furrow for the water pipes is almost at the site. We are counting on the water and electricity companies to have their utilities ready for us in the very early New Year.
At the same time progress has continued on the classroom/dormitory block to the extent that one wing has been completed, and the girls and boys toilets are also nearing completion. 50% of the funding for the third wing has been obtained, but we need to find the remaining 50% if we are to meet our target of finishing this building by August 2010.
There are many children in Tanzania who, for one reason or another, do not have access to the education that we believe they have a right to. Some 78 of these youngsters are already being supported by WATU in the Moshi and Pare areas and are being followed closely by our WATU staff. The extra tuition classes held in June and July of this year (see previous update) were hugely appreciated. Some of our sponsored students have successfully graduated from Form 4 of their secondary schools and are now looking for places in A-level courses. Grace and Lucy in the picture above are two such students. We congratulate them. Others, like Hamidu Ibraham at Majengo Secondary, are approaching their final A-Level examinations and we wish them all the very best of success. We are also very pleased to announce that owing to the spontaneous generosity of two donors we have been able not only to secure the future of Jakline a brilliant student studying to be a doctor in Dar es Salaam but also to pay off her debts which were weighing her down and discouraging her. Jakline, who will be guaranteed government assistance next year, is now well on her way to becoming a qualified doctor and after that, as she hopes, a heart surgeon. We are enormously proud of her.
Our determination to provide educational materials to the children of Moshi has been given a great boost. Our container of science and maths books, ESL materials, pre-primary equipment, and a great deal more is at this moment on the high seas. We expect it to arrive at the port of Dar-es-Salaam before Christmas. Materials and equipment should be distributed before the start of the 2010 academic year.
The Shiri Mgungani pre-primary school has been a great success as we draw towards the end of the first year. Many of the children will be “graduating” to the first year in the local primary school and we wish them success there. We are now in the process of enrolling new children to join the Montessori kindergarten and we expect to have a full complement by the time the new school year begins in January. The parents of the children are very pleased with the school and have formed a support group.
2010 looks to be an exciting year for WATU. There will be a new update in January when we will report on the opening of the science laboratory, the New Year in the pre-primary school and on the arrival of the container
Back to recent developments page
Back to recent developments page