Tanzania Partnership

Here's a great little blog entry at Lutheran World Relief about their work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania educating about malaria . Tunafanya kazi pamoja = we are working together. Yes.

Here's another letter of thanks, this time from one of our students who completed both secondary and university studies as an SOTV scholarship recipient. I am grateful to hear from you. I am walking from my living room to my work place. While on my way, I have been visiting my electronic mail and reviewed your encouraging emails you sent to me when I was studying at secondary school and college. Your and other americans' messages reveal the great love of God through his people. It reminds me of the word of God that tells the world that "when you are in difficulties and in need, if you bow unto him who knows you inside and out, he will open the door of your difficulties and needs" and I believe, God does this through his people as he did and does to me. This makes me think of him and you and teaches me to love every and each person I meet. May the almighty father who is in heaven bless you abundantly for what you do for the people of my kind and throughout the Ir...

Here's a letter we received from one of the 140 students sponsored by Shepherd of the Valley, who receive financial support for tuition, room and board at secondary schools and university in Tanzania. My dear friends, I greet you in the name of God. My health, it is well . And my studies, I am still proceeding on the studies. I thank for you through God for proceeding paying for the cost of school for me. In my family, the total number of children is ten. I am the last child. At this time I have 20 years. I started the secondary school education in February 2004 at Idodi Secondary School after being selected from the students who passed the primary examination which I did in 2003. I passed the form two national examination and then the form four national examination. From those results I was selected to join form five at Njombe Secondary School for the combination of PCM -- Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. I transferred to Mwembetoga Secondary School in order to study th...

Every fall, we ask for support for the Tanzanian Scholarship Fund. When we entered into this partnership ten years ago, SOTV provided six scholarships. Now we provide 140 secondary and university students with scholarships. So far this fall, we have received funds to provide 60 secondary scholarships at $360 per year. Friends, we have a ways to go. By December 1st, we need to tell our partners in Tanzania how many scholarships we can provide in 2011. They understand that the US and global economies are struggling, and they are hoping that we can commit to simply sustaining the level of support that we have provided in the past two years--100 secondary scholarships for students from Tungamalenga Parish, an additional 25 scholarships for orphans living at Huruma Center in Iringa, plus 12 to 15 scholarships for university students. Our partners tell us that fewer than 15% of all Tanzanians are able to attend secondary school. Fewer than 10% of those are able to attend college. We need to ...

children's daily chores: carry water dressing up in Tanzanian clothing pounding corn into flour clothing from the Hehe tribe, jewelry from Maasai tasting ugali hearing about children's health issues and sleeping under a mosquito net About 700 SOTV children in grades 1-5 had the opportunity to experience Tanzanian daily life and culture during our guests' visit. Pastor Diane and Mama Anjelina taught them Tanzanian songs and dances, as well as the custom of greeting elders with the word "shikamoo" and receiving the blessing, "mara haba." Dr Saga and Dr Randy Hurley helped the children understand the importance of drinking only boiled water to prevent diarrhea and other water borne illnesses, and the importance of sleeping beneath netting treated with insecticide to prevent malaria. Dora Saga helped children try on kitangas and other traditional Tanzanian clothing and jewelry. In other rooms, volunteers showed children the variety of fruits and...

"Feel at home" is one of the phrases my Tanzanian friends use often when groups from Shepherd of the Valley visit them. Hospitality is truly one of the riches of Tanzanian culture. So now that they are here spending time in my home, I find myself saying it and wondering how I can help them feel more at home. There are small 'tells' as when Mama wants to help clear the dishes after dinner. My first impulse is to take the dishes from her and treat her like the honored guest she is, and then I realize it is good to do this simple thing together. [There's that bega kwa bega -- shoulder to shoulder --thing again.] I realized tonight that Mchungaji Naftal must be feeling a little more at home because we are both forgetting the camera and the impulse to take a picture of him with each person who greets him. Naftal and Anjelina have been with us now a week, and it hardly seems to have been more than a few days. When I travel to their country, especially with people ...

Tungamalenga Primary School Today we visited Rosemount Elementary School. Thanks very much to SOTV member Jeanne Fifield, the school nurse, who gave us a tour and arranged our schedule. We visited a kindergarten class where students were learning the alphabet and letter sounds by singing, and we visited a fourth grade class where students were doing math problems using the Smart Board technology. The disparities between Tanzanian and American educational systems were very apparent. A Tanzanian classroom might have one text book for every three to four students to share, Pastor Naftal reports. One classroom might hold 50 to 80 students, some even 100. Teachers in the Tanzanian system may have only a secondary level education, or they may have only one or two years of college. Pastor Naftal reflected on his own daughter, Eliza, who is in standard five. Imagine having her sit next to a student from America at the same level. A teacher in America tries to be a friend to the student, obser...