Raising money for The Heri Special School at Mporoto, Tanzania

MONEY RAISED: £805.00

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS

Since its inception over 10 years ago, The Heri Special School has come a long way. Situated in the south-west Rungwe district of Tanzania, its 50-plus pupils (around 20% are disabled) continue to benefit from what was once just a dream. Through the vision, commitment and efforts of the late Mark Roberts and the late Egha Egha, as well as the funding of many generous donors, the dream became reality. And through the subsequent donations to the St Jude Foundation from people such as yourself, The Heri Special School (‘heri’ meaning ‘happiness’ in Swahili) continues to provide a safe, nurturing, happy environment for its children.

In our last newsletter, sent to you in December 2016, we told you about some of the fantastic things that The Heri Special School had managed to achieve as a result of donations such as yours: covered walkways alongside school buildings, roof repairs and maintenance, wheelchair accessibility to classrooms, and more… That was a year ago, and with Christmas now just around the corner, we thought we’d take this opportunity to update you again.

Some of the improvements and works that have been achieved during the course of 2017 include: carrying out further extensive roof repairs to the school buildings; painting the iron roof sheets; further repairs and maintenance to classroom ceilings; painting the railings around the school walls; painting the windows around the school buildings. To see recent photos of the school, click here.

It remains the aim of The Heri Special School to achieve official recognition and registration with the Tanzanian government and though they’ve come a long way in reaching this goal, there’s still some way to go. Some good news is that the school now has the funding and plans in place for the playground. With materials already bought, works are scheduled to start this week. If all goes to plan there will be a level playground area along with two swings, two slides, skipping ropes and balls. The children are looking forward to the New Year with their playground - and we look forward to being able to send you pictures of it.

There are still many more things that are needed though: a metal cabinet is needed to securely store valuable items belonging to the school and staff; a covered walkway is required between the classroom buildings and the toilet block; there is additional maintenance work to be done on the ceiling boards; and there is still a requirement for more school equipment, teaching materials and furniture (blackboards, books, paper, pencils, pens, chalk, a globe, toys, tables, chairs, cupboards).

We have recently found out that communication for the Headteacher, Safina Egha, is fairly difficult. To email us, she relies either on the use of her husband’s mobile phone or she travels by bus into town to use the internet café which she says is expensive. In addition, the camera that her father gave her is temperamental and often doesn’t work. We are hoping to be able to buy Safina a new phone and pay for a reasonable monthly contract so that she can use it to communicate with us more efficiently and take more pictures of the school.

The above additions and improvements can be achieved with the help of the St Jude Foundation and its supporters. With the above in mind – we would be extremely grateful for any donation you could make. Donations can be made in a variety of ways and we have listed these at the bottom of this letter. 

In an attempt to boost fund-raising for The Heri Special School we are hoping to hold a fund-raising music concert in the spring or summer of 2018, in Sevenoaks. We would be delighted if you could join us for this event and we’ll keep you updated about this over the coming weeks.   

We hope that this letter – and the pictures below – will enable you to see the good your kindness has brought about. All that is left to say is to wish you and yours a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Vivian Hinchcliffe

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The St Jude Foundation

Donate

To make a donation to The St Jude Foundation for The Heri Special School in Mporoto, Tanzania: 

Bank Transfer: The St Jude Foundation | Account Number: 00216129 | Sort Code: 30-00-08

Cheques: payable to The St Jude Foundation, post to 43 Angel Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0AZ

Credit Card or Paypal - please click here for info:  www.thestjudefoundation.com/donations