Africaid Schools

Dear friends and family,

On Friday, the 12th of December we spent the day focusing on Africaid projects. We started the day with me visiting a solar power shop to understand the intricacies of solar power then went to the old hospital where we picked up a long time supporter of Africaid, John Laiser. We proceeded to the Ebenezer School to evaluate new classrooms and Internet projects that Rockland Church in Colorado is championing and then proceeded to Losinoni which is on the other side of 15,000 ft Mount Meru from where we live (took us an hour to get there). For both schools we delivered a couple hundred dollars of school supplies and took pictures to prove it but more importantly at Losinoni we handed over a check worth almost $600 for lunches for the 700 children. Let’s talk financial dynamics at Losinoni for fun. The government funds education for children. This means that they pay 10,000 Tanzanian shillings per year for every child that goes to school. Wait, let me say that they are supposed to pay 10,000 Tanzanian shillings per child. In the case of Losinoni they only received 5,000 shillings per child. That is for the entire year. Wait, I don’t think I mentioned the exchange rate. One US dollar equals 1300 Tanzanian shillings per child. Let’s do the math, each child at Losinoni (did I mention many walk as far as 10 km away each day to AND from school to attend?) gets about FOUR BUCKS for the entire year of education. I don’t think that I’ve mentioned the number of teachers, there are 6, as in SIX, as in one more than five, for the school of 700 kids. I’ve attached a picture of the 6 teachers names and the number or males (left) and females (right) in each grade level.

OK, so we were able to deliver a check for almost $600 to provide lunches for children (thank you to everyone who purchased a bracelet) which can purchase months worth of food to the kids. The lunch meal for many of the children is the only meal that they will receive. Africaid has put in several classrooms and bathrooms for the children which are beautiful from African standards. This has significantly dropped the number of kids per class but the problem still remains that it is difficult for them to get teachers. The issue is primarily one of power, there is none at Losinoni. Think about that for a moment. No cell phone, no lights, no TV, no computer…the list goes on. And for teachers assigned by the government to go there? Good luck…they go to visit but they don’t come back. Would you? So my goal was to assist Africaid and Evergreen Rotary in finding out how we can implement a solar power system first in the staff houses that will help raise staff retention…if the staff can watch TV, use laptop computers and charge their computer they will be much more interested in teaching at this very rural school. I’ve attached a picture of the specifications of the system we are proposing to use.