First Day at School
12.05.2015
For children in the Southern Hemisphere, January is the month in which they all start school. At the help2kids Children’s Home in Dar es Salaam, the week before the 13th of January was spent buying new school clothes, stationary, books and notepads. Though it was a busy rush to be prepared, the children enjoyed the shopping experience and had a lot of fun. As the big day approached, there was a lot of excitement and chatter amongst the children about seeing their friends and teachers again as well as the joy of learning new things. They could not wait to open their textbooks and take in as much knowledge as possible so they can grow up to fulfill their dreams of being scientists, doctors, teachers and even presidents. The children were awake at 5:30 am on January 13th, with big smiles on their faces. Digna had her first day at school ever! She is attending nursery school at JK Nyerere Primary School. It was also Happy John, Richard, Zainabu, Pascal and Selemani’s first day at a new private primary school, Valentine. After breakfast, they excitedly got changed into their new uniforms and then showed them off in the front garden before walking to school with Head Mother, Mama Leah. Starting from the gates of the Children’s Home, the children walked off down the road and through rising sun’s rays to towards their schools singing songs that float along the crisp morning air.
We would like to thank all our educational sponsors; the children are truly blessed with the education they are receiving. We are still looking for an education sponsorship for Zainabu. For more information on sponsoring a child’s education please follow this link
https://www.help2kids.org/orphanage/projects/tansania/childrens-home.html
On the last week of January, help2kids launched a new project in partnership with Mwandaliwa Orphanage Centre, which houses 75 children ranging from 3 to 17 years-old. help2kids supports Mwandaliwa by running their nursery school which is within the property of the orphanage; the nursery school is located in the Bunjudistrict of Dar es Salaam.
Twenty children between the ages of three and six currently go to the nursery school. We provide them with breakfast and a healthy snack during break time at 10 am. This help2kids feeding programme at Mwandaliwa orphanage and nursery ensures that the children we support are healthy and strong so they are able to stay at school and learn for longer. Currently, our volunteers are repainting the second classroom of the nursery school in order to improve the infrastructure. Volunteers in the future will also assist Teacher Happy Estha in educating the 20 nursery school students. The nursery curriculum focuses on Kiswahili, English, Mathematics, Science, Art, and Sports. While working in the classroom, Teacher Happy Estha and the volunteers encourage the children to behave well, teaching them social skills like sharing equipment, saying please and thank you, as well as, staying seated during class and participating in activities appropriately
help2kids also provides any teaching or classroom materials for the children and the teacher. Our goal is to provide excellent education in a safe learning environment.
In addition to Mwandaliwa, help2kids launched its health project in Dar es Salaam by establishing a health office just down the road from the Children’s Home. We recruited Editha Mziray as our health project coordinator. Editha has a Master of Science in Community Economic Development MCED. Her main responsibilities are to oversee all health issues concerning children at the Children’s Home, Bajeviro Primary School and partner orphanages and hospitals that help2kids is working with. Editha previously volunteered as an Operations Manager at DNF Research Planning and Development Partners and worked as a Programme Officer at Care International in Tanzania for more than four years.
The help2kids health office aims to oversee all health related issues at our Children’s home, Bajeviro Primary School and three Orphanage centers in Dar es Salaam. Our health projects goals are to create partnerships with local hospitals that will work with treating children from our children’s home and orphanage center partners as well as, establishing partnerships with other NGO’s that focus on public health issues.
In January alone, the help2kids health office has already identified health related needs at our proposed partnership orphanages, bought 40 new mattresses for the children home and is in the process of distributing five First Aid Kits for the Children’s Home, our three partnered orphanage centers and Bajeviro Primary school. This is a new and very exciting project which help2kids hopes will bring quality healthcare to children from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds.
