Hello, all our friends,
My recent October trip was filled with the usual wonderful celebrations, this time for the opening of three new buildings completed in the last year.
Tidivi Primary School now has a new Administration building that includes the office for the headmaster, a library room, a teacher's room and staff washrooms. Teacher will now be able to work more effectively to meet, mark papers, etc. The library, an invaluable resource for student learning, will eventually get computers once we get solar electricity panels installed.
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| The new Administration building |
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Library Room
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| The new Tidivi Administration building |
The new Administration building was very well constructed by our builder Restus Sanka. The teaching staff absolutely thought they died and went to heaven when it was finished. The headmaster finally got his own office. The library is so necessary for proper learning. The teachers have their own desks where they can prepare lessons and mark papers. It is much more effective than a desk in each classroom.
We provide new high quality durable chairs, desks and shelving that we design and get custom built. Its actually cheaper than if we sourced and ordered them since Tanzania doesn't have a great manufacturing industry, relying mostly on imports.
The big gift for the teaching staff is to finally have their own washrooms, male and female. Each is fully tiled with toilet, sink and mirror.
The typically long-winded speech by the guest of honour was very short and sweet. He had the flu and had to exit earlier than he normally would.
The new 2-family Teacher Residence building is our best design to date. It has three bedrooms compared to our previous two-bedroom design. Its great for a growing family and gives more privacy to the kids in their teen years. And in the meantime, a spare bedroom can be used to temporarily accommodate single teachers.
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| All Tidivi teachers w/ Alan and builder Restus (next to Alan) |
The teachers and kids at Tidivi even prepared a song of appreciation for the school's sponsor, the Class of '70 ex-cadets of Canada's Royal Military College. The words are:
"Tidivi, Tidivi, our wonderful school so grand
Tidivi, Tidivi, it's really the best in the land
We are happy to come here to learn and grow
The nice buildings play a big part
Thank you dear friends from Canada
Your kindness lies deep in our hearts"
This is the link to the video on Youtube:
Simba Milima Primary School now has a new 2-family Teacher Residence building and a new Kitchen/Dining Hall thanks to the generous ongoing sponsorship of Canadian firm Safari Partners Inc from Vancouver.
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| Arriving at School with villagers singing One of the most impressive and heartwarming experience was the arrival. It seems like the whole village turns out. They chanted their customary greeting song in their native Kiswahili. The elders greeted me and the guest of honor, the District Executive Director personally and presented me with the symbol of elder statesmanship; a wood staff. It looks like a simple whittled tree branch, but in their culture it is revered as a sign of respect for the elders. When I didn't hold it properly my elder companion was quick to correct me, haha. |
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| head table with the honorable guest, the District Executive Director, sitting next to me. |
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| villagers seated to listen to the speeches |
The new Kitchen/Dining hall was enthusiastically appreciated by the students as a nice clean environment to eat their delicious once-a-day traditional "Makande" meal, a wholesome mixture of maize corn and beans.
The kitchen has 2 new stainless wood-burning steel stoves vented to the exterior roof, a huge improvement from the outdoor open-fire smoke-filled cooking. Large pots are set into the cylinder-shaped stoves, cooking very efficiently.
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| New Dining Hall |
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| New Dining Hall |
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| stainless steel pot-cooking stoves at new Kitchen |
The new 2-family Teacher Residence building is our best design to date. It has three bedrooms compared to our previous two-bedroom design. Its great for a growing family and gives more privacy to the kids in their teen years. And in the meantime, a spare bedroom can be used to temporarily accommodate single teachers.
The teachers are extremely please to be living in a "modern" clean and healthy environment. The kitchen is equipped with a countertop 2-burner propane gas stove and a sink, but their most life-changing feature is the shower and toilet rooms. All running water is fed from the tower-mounted 2000 litre SIM tanks adjacent each residence.
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| ribbon cutting of the new Teacher Residences |
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Teacher family in new Teacher Residence |
Our Progress To Date. In 13 years we've come a long way with the progress at each of our 8 schools. Two are completed. At the remaining 6 schools, the majority of buildings, most importantly the classroom buildings, are complete and operating well. We need funding for the outstanding support buildings at those schools.
Our 5 Primary Schools each have outstanding development costs ranging from 64,000 at the most completed school to 199,000 CAD for the least completed one.
Our short term goal is to complete these 5 schools before we take on new schools. Other villages have approached us to start much-needed primary schools in their area where walking distances to existing schools are too long and even dangerous for the young kids.
Our heartfelt thanks to all the generous donors who have supported us over the past 13 years. The Tanzanian children feel blessed to be in a standard of public school that is considerably higher than the government-built ones with their lesser construction quality and the absence of Teacher Residences. And their better academic performance is proving it.
How To Donate
Visit PrimarySchoolsforAfrica.com and click on the "Donate" button, or send a cheque made out to:
"PSFA Primary Schools For Africa Society", and mail to:
3301 Wordsworth Street, Victoria, BC, V8P4B9
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