Safina Egha & Registration of Heri School
Safina Egha
This has been a year of significant change for the Heri School. As you know, the founder of the school, Egha Egha, sadly died last March and has been succeeded by his daughter, Safina, who is dedicated to carrying on the work of the school in honour of her father’s memory. During the past year the Foundation has continued to support the school with a number of projects, including the building of a wall surrounding the school, and paying for repairs when severe rainfall caused subsidence close to the building. The Foundation also purchased a laptop for Safina and this has greatly improved our communication with her, especially as she can now email photos and videos. The Foundation supplements the salaries of the staff twice yearly and has recently donated money to purchase various teaching materials. Finally, in the past week, we have paid for the installation of additional toilets on the school premises.
The school was recently visited by Tanzanian Government education inspectors. They suggested a number of improvements which could be made to the school if and when funds permit. Sadly, they did not offer to supply any funds themselves! However, they “approved” the present uses of the buildings, which means that the school can legally continue to function as a special school. The further stage of official “registration” will be considered when the suggested improvements have been completed. One of these was the improvement to toilets, mentioned previously. Another urgent aim is the provision of fire extinguishers. After that, we need a level, fenced playground for organised games and physical exercise; this will be provided if and when funds permit.
As a result of the inspectors’ visit to the school, I am hoping to make contact with the department of education in the Tanzanian Government to see whether Heri School, now that it is built and functioning, can receive any government funding. In the meantime, it falls to the St Jude Foundation to provide what funds we can (supplemented by the fund-raising efforts of the school staff with their farm and shop). So, as always, donations are very welcome at any time. Thank you again for all your past generosity. I enclose some photos recently taken at Heri School.
With very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,
Yours sincerely, Mark Roberts