The St Jude Foundation Christmas Appeal 2019
Raising money for The Heri Special School at Mporoto, Tanzania
£1030 raised!
Thank you from everyone at The St Jude Foundation, and from Safina Egha - on behalf of Heri Special School.
updated on 9th January 2020
As another year draws to a close, I thought you’d like to know how things have been for The Heri Special School in 2019.
The late Mark Roberts established the St Jude Foundation to help disabled children and their families in the UK and abroad. Now in its 31st year, the Foundation focuses on helping The Heri Special School in the village of Mbeya in southwest Tanzania.
The Heri School (Heri meaning “happy” in Swahili) currently has 49 children on roll and 7 of these children are severely disabled. The pupils are able to stay on at school until they are 20-years-old and are ensured a safe and nurturing environment throughout their primary and teenage years. The disabled children are fully integrated into the school’s life and Safina, the headteacher, reports that everyone benefits from having a diverse school population. The school’s primary aim is to help all its young people to develop to their full potential and prepare them for later life in the community.
This time last year, the school had 39 students. This year, there are 10 more pupils. It is good news that the school is expanding, but this puts more demands on its fairly limited resources. Safina and the staff have more children with pretty much the same equipment and premises. Yet Safina and her teaching team – Charles, Anna, Emma, Atubwene, - with the help of Mama Sophie, the cook and Anyelwisye, the caretaker – continue to work successfully for the benefit of all the children and their families. The reports on the progress of the children are very encouraging.
It is nearly 25 years since Mark Roberts worked with Egha (Safina’s father) to build The Heri School. Since then the school has expanded and gone from strength to strength. The success of the school is partly due to the continued commitment and expertise of Safina and her team, but it is also due to your generous support. Without your donations, from our loyal band of supporters, The Heri School would not be able to exist, never mind gradually expand.
2019 Achievements
In her ever-positive manner, Safina tells us how well the pupils and staff are doing. She reports that:
Pupils are well educated with an important focus on reading and counting.
Pupils enjoy learning and are happy in their work. They have enjoyed playing football and handball, singing, dancing, running and drawing. They have been taught life skills such as how to wash clothes and do simple cooking and regularly put into practice what they have learned.
Together with their teachers, the pupils harvest maize, potatoes and beans.
And they have sold 22 trees!
The younger children have continued to enjoy the playground equipment that was funded by the St Jude Foundation donations 2 years ago.
Challenges
Safina reminds us of how different life is for people living in rural Africa, particularly for children with disabilities and their families. Most disabled children in rural settings do not have the opportunity to attend school. They stay at home with their families and live fairly insular lives. This was why Mark Roberts and Egha wanted to build The Heri School, - where all children, including disabled children, could attend school together.
However, apart from the invaluable support the school provides for its disabled children and their families, Safina says beyond school there is very little help. Life is hard and children with disabilities are entirely dependent upon their extended families. Times get even more challenging when the children leave school and when their parents become old or ill. Safina describes other challenges:
The school is still not registered. For a number of years now, it has been the aim of both The Heri Special School and The St Jude Foundation for the school to become registered and recognised by the Tanzanian government. Sadly, in current times registration does not ensure Tanzanian government funding. But registration remains an important step towards official recognition and seems to us to be an important point for putting pressure on the Tanzanian government to financially support one of its community schools. In the last few years, The Heri School has met many of the government’s criteria for registration. Many of the Health and Safety conditions have been achieved, for example, the school has the requisite numbers of fire extinguishers and its sanitation facilities are satisfactory, but further improvements are required, e.g., increased recreation space and facilities. These improvements are, of course, dependent upon funding. The Heri School has an action plan of works to meet the registration criteria, it just needs the money to do them.
There is a constant need for more teaching materials and Safina reports that some of the chairs and tables that the children and staff use in the classroom are now old and starting to break beyond repair.
Maintenance of the school premises is an on-going challenge. Nearly 25 years have passed since the original school buildings were built and many areas are in need of repair. Safina and her staff work hard trying to stay on top of this, but Safina explains that the weather, particularly storms, do not help.
Many of the pupils have parents or carers who are unwell or have died. Other children’s families sometimes have to move away to find work. Sadly, Safina describes this as one of their greatest challenges: that some of the children can become more or less abandoned. Safina’s dream is that one day they will be able to build a small hostel on the school grounds where a housekeeper or ‘nanny’ can care for and raise children who have lost their families. For the time being, though, Safina’s focus is necessary on the ‘here and now’ – providing the children in her care with the best education she can.
As always, I would like to thank Safina and her team for their dedicated support to the children and their families. They have had many successes despite these challenges and Safina always reports that the children are very happy. Safina remains positive and firmly believes that with continued funding the outlook for the school continues to be good. She believes government registration is a realistic aim. The school makes good use of their limited funds and everyone is very hands-on, they do most of the maintenance work themselves. In the New Year, Safina wants to construct a more robust covered pathway to the toilet block using iron sheeting.
She also wants to try to make the school more self-sufficient and speaks about growing more crops and trees to sell. She has a plan to replace worn out equipment and buy more teaching materials to meet the growing pupil population. Safina doesn’t lose sight of the ‘easier’ things she and her team do on a daily basis. She says loving and caring for the children costs nothing. Safina is ambitious for the children and she revels in their progress and successes.
How you can help
Safina appreciates all your support and always wants me to convey her gratitude and best wishes. Below, I have included some photographs that Safina has sent us recently. More pictures and some videos are available online here.
Please continue to support The Heri School and its children by making donations to the St Jude Foundation. A little goes a long way in rural Africa so even the smallest donation is gratefully received. Donations to the St Jude Foundation can be made in a variety of ways and we have listed these at the bottom of this letter.
I hope this newsletter and some of the photographs help you to see how valuable your support is to the life and soul of The Heri School. Thank you once again. Thanks also to Dylan, Neville, Jillian and Sue for their fantastic work behind the scenes keeping the St Jude charity going. I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Vivian Hinchcliffe (Managing Trustee of The St Jude Foundation) and Merry Christmas from Dylan, Neville, Jillian and Sue ☺
Donations
Make a donation to The St Jude Foundation, to support The Heri Special School in Mporoto, Tanzania, in one of the following ways:
Single Bank Transfer or Monthly Standing Order
Suggested: £5, £10 or £15 per month
The St Jude Foundation
Account Number: 00216129
Sort Code: 30-00-08
Cheque
Please make your cheque payable to The St Jude Foundation and post to 43 Angel Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0AZ
Debit Card, Credit Card or Paypal
Please see our donations page