|
News reported during January 2004
Once again Daniel has been in regular communication this month - reporting that the children had a good Christmas with other news reported below.
New Children:
We are overjoyed to tell you that we now have 38 children in our care (26 boys and 12 girls).
The latest two to join did so on the 8th January 2004 and Daniel writes:
“New children: We received new two girls in our family Bethany on 08/01/04 from Busagara in Mwanza whose both of their parents died of H.I.V. according to the details given to us from the person who brought them to us who is the older sister of their grandmother. The following are their names:
1. Agatha Charles born on 6th of December 1995.
2. Josephine Amos born on 22nd of October 1995.
Their mothers are sisters which means in our culture they are sisters too but I guess in your culture they are cousins.” (Dates of birth will have been estimated.)
So far we are unable to show you any photographs but will do as soon as we have them.
Secondary education for our 6 primary school leavers:
The results have come for our 6 children who sat their entry exam (our equivalent to the 11plus) for the government secondary school. They were, Ibrahim, Kwekwe, Rwechungura, Chaina, Emmakulata and Angelina. Sadly only Emmakulata passed which would normally mean no further secondary education for the other children unless through the private school system (paid for entirely by the parents). It must be said that Emmakulata was the only child to pass from Yitwimila state primary school (400 pupils est.) where our children attend. We believe that four of these children Kwekwe, Rwechungura, Chaina, and Angelina would benefit from attending Bulima private school (where Mwita presently attends). However the cost starts to mount as the fees cost anything from 300/350,000Tsh (£175/£210) each per year. This doesn’t sound a lot when compared to fees charged per year in the UK but as we rely mainly on private donations this is something we have had to consider carefully. Of the 6 children who completed their primary education Ibrahim (age 20?) is now working at Bethany as a junior volunteer and we hope to help him with further practical training at a local training school in Mwanza where they do short as well as long courses on such skills as carpentry and mechanics etc.
Click here to see photos of our primary school leavers
Health: No problems reported at present
Clinic & Water: The clinic and water systems are working well.
News from Keith and Barbarann Pitson: Whilst on holiday in Talahasse, Florida, America Keith emailed to tell us that one of his friends who is head of Physical Education at the local University would like to donate some quality sports equipment for ages 5 - 16. With the help of some students from the university they hope to be able to raise enough funds to be able to send them direct to the project in Tanzania. We will let you know more about this kind offer in our next update.
New Book worth a read: Hilary Murphy (UK team) has recommended a book which has a great deal of insight into the Masai culture and how they perceive Christianity etc. Hilary kindly lent me the book which I read on holiday - it is definitely worth a read. (get it from Amazon!). The title is ‘Christianity Rediscovered’ by Vincent J Donovan. SCM press. isbn number 0-334-02855-8.
Brian Bancroft and John Fisher: traveled out to Tanzania on Wednesday the 14th and have reported everything is fine. Brian and John are hoping to complete the conversion of the old dining room and kitchen to a temporary girls dormitory which will give the boys more room.
Children’s trip to the UK: This is still a possibility and we are working on the practicalities at the moment.
Home news:
UK Team: Everyone fine - Jo. Hartley is back with us helping where possible.
Future Trips: Graham and Sheila Pountain and others hope to visit in January - February (2004). Still time to book to come on this trip (email)
New vehicle grant: No further news.
New style web site: Hope you all like the new web pages - whilst there’s still a lot more to be included - at least a start has been made. I would particularly like comments and suggestions from first time users who can tell me how it could be improved (i.e. what information they were looking for and was the information easy to find etc.). Perhaps regular users can let me know what else or what other facilities we could add. (email me)
|
