New Year / New Start

In our call with Mama and family, we learned that one distribution was held at a school with 7,000 students!  An incredible number for sure, and it only works by running the school day in shifts for students. The school in Mmbande was even bigger a year ago at 9,000 students, but 2,000 students were moved to another site very close by.

Even Mama, a very seasoned SCAW volunteer, was surprised at the number of students and had never seen anything like it.  We learned that the school has grown exponentially since the government waived a fee for children to attend school.

For this distribution, the head teacher was able to give the Upendo team a private site underneath a mango tree which meant that the children had some shade.

The students and their parents are still responsible for their uniforms and school supplies; both of which are in the bedkits that the children are receiving. Mama Wandoa told us that some of the uniforms are looking torn and bedraggled right now.  Mama’s cottage industry makes the new, white shirts, the blue shorts/skirts and each child receives four exercise books, pencils and a ruler.

The students who received bedkits this week are now starting their Christmas break, but when they return in January they will be very proudly wearing their crisp, white shirts and blue shorts/skirts for the new year. They also will have a new cloth gym bag with t-shirt and shorts to wear for gym class or to use as pyjamas at home.

Asante sana (thank you) to our Sleeping Children donors for making this possible.

Asante sana to Mama, Benjamin, Wendy and the Upendo Team  (12 volunteers) for working so hard on behalf of the children.

Lala Salama (sleep well).

Jill and Peggy
Team Tanzania 2021