Build a school for 100 Maasai children in Tanzania

Dear Friends and Donors,

It's a pleasure to be able to update you all on the latest news from Tanzania. Over the last six months, it has been difficult to contact the remote communities with whom we work in the Simanjiro district of Northern Tanzania. Even our local partners haven't been able to go as often as they would have liked. But luckily, COVID cases seem to have been kept low throughout Tanzania, especially in the areas that we work in.

More immediate problems for the communities were the unseasonally long and heavy rains from November 2019 until May 2020. There was so much rain that the crops were very badly affected, so community wealth and nutrition has been a concern for communities this year as well.

Depite this, there is good news from the sub-village of Kiruru. Building the new primary school was such a priority for the local community that despite the difficulties of COVID and the poor harvest, they were able to raise a small amount of money themselves to continue construction of the school. We were very happy to be able to match the funds they raised themselves with the donations we had received via GlobalGiving, so the community are now going to be able to progress with putting a roof on the school structure!

There's still a long way to go though, so please do consider forwarding this appeal to your friends and relatives, to help this community construct a school for their children, so that they no long have to walk 14km a day to reach the nearest alternative (fording a river, and fending off wildlife on the way!)

In the meantime, we'll share another related story from the community with you, about the inspirational volunteer teacher featured in the video on our GlobalGiving appeal. She is passionate about education and the development of her community. But her husband doesn't feel quite the same way. In recent months, he tried to insist that she stop teaching completely. Apparently, because she refused, she has been forced out of her house, and is now having to build her own house in a plot given to her by the community some years ago! She is very upset, naturally, but for her teaching the village children remains her number 1 priority, and it seems that no amount of personal hardship can deter her from her vision and passion. We hope our own activities in the village will make her proud!