10 Jun

More than 300 vulnerable children now benefit from quality education

The parents of the children were very supportive. ‘We are taking our children to school so that they don’t end up illiterate.’”

Lynne Mac, a volunteer from UNITERRA through the WUSC program, arrived in Tanzania in 2018 and has been able to work with SUGECO for two weeks as a Resource and Gender mobilization advisor. During her time at SUGECO, she got an opportunity to visit two primary schools in Morogoro, SUA and Kihonda Bwawani Primary School. While at SUGECO, she donated sport kits to SUA and Bwawani Primary school located in Morogoro. Yet her passion for helping the local community through education inspired her to help children at Bwawani primary school who were sitting on the floor in the unfinished three classes with no roofs.When she got back to Canada, she decided to fundraise USD 3800 to buy desks and some other school properties. The money was used to make 45 desks that accommodate 180 students and purchasing of school books and sports kits. 

While visiting the school, SUGECO noticed that the student couldn’t access clean and safe water. “When we asked them where they are getting clean and safe water, and why the number of students would drop time after time, they said they are not getting safe water as they are using water in the same source that animals use to drink nearby, which is not safe for their health and students are getting tired of getting education in a hard environment like this,” said one of the community member.

In August 2020, SUGECO handed over the school desks and other education properties, meeting with the communities and introducing a biological water filter for the school. The community agreed to raise money for purchasing more filters for the community so that they can get clean and safe water and minimize the risk of getting epidemic diseases like, brucellosis and cholera.  The parents said the support will help keep children in school and improve their performance. Absenteeism will no longer be an issue in the school because the improvement of the education environment will attract more students to attend school and if they will continue to get support for building and finishing the classrooms it will help to reduce overcrowding as the school’s attendance grows.

“The support of desks and provision of other school properties has seen an increase in child enrollment in school. As parents, we are thinking of introducing a school feeding program in our school in order to continue attracting children to attend school,” said the school board chair. “When we give education to these children, they will be our hope and although they are getting education in this hard environment they perform very well to continue with secondary education, my daughter is in secondary school and her primary education she got from this school.”