Just a dollar a day

Sharon Mertz spoke in worship last weekend about our Tanzanian Scholarship Fund.

Sharon with Vumilia, the student she sponsors

 

I’m guessing that in your pocket or in the bottom of your purse, most of you have at least $1 worth of change.

I want it!

 

Education is the issue.  Here and in Tanzania.

K-12 here is provided by our government.. Buildings (with windows and screens), desks, computers, libraries, lunchrooms, food, bathrooms, janitor services, clean water and other amenities – inside gymnasiums, outside game fields and the list goes on.

Not so in Tanzania.

The government provides for all students to attend 1^st thru 6^th or 7^th grades.  These are elementary schools at the village level.  Not all villages have a school.  80% of these primary school aged children attend school.  For others, there is no school in their village.

I visited a primary school.  1 math book for 80 students.  6 science books for 60 students. Teacher writing the whole lesson on the blackboard with chalk. . .

Kids who get beyond the 7^th grade attend what is called ‘secondary school.’

These are boarding schools, centralized in an area of the country.  Less than 6% of children get to go to secondary school.  Those schools also lack books and equipment.

It broke my heart.

Here is where you come in.

That dollar of change in your pocket?  360 days of that change, $360 for a year provides room and board for 1 student.

Help us send 150 students to school with textbooks and technology.

The spotlight table in the narthex has the details. And the pledge deadline is December 1, so that we can tell our partners how many students we can support in the coming year.

Just a dollar a day makes the difference.