The people who live in Suji are lifestyle rich but cash poor. As we have said in previous posts on the blog, Suji is one of the most beautiful places one would ever wish to visit. The people have small houses on small plots on which they grow vegetables, have a banana tree and if they are lucky may have a cow but only a few families have cows. Family members who have been lucky enough to receive an education and get a job support their extended family back in Suji.
Suji is strictly a rural community and there is no industry. Some of the men find work in the tourism industry in the nearest town; Moshi which is over two hours away by mini bus. Those who work in Moshi stay there or otherwise they would leave Suji at 6a.m. and the mini bus ( the only transport out for the day) takes them on a one hour journey down the mountain on a very steep, un-surfaced road to Sammé where it is then necessary to take another bus to Moshi. Nobody owns a car in Suji and a couple of people have motor bikes.
The children in Suji Malindi Secondary School leave early on Fridays and climb further up the mountain to the forest where they cut timber, carry it back to the village and that in turn is used for cooking. We in the west frown on such a practice as we know the damage this is doing to the environment. While there is electricity in the village it can be off for days and just last week there was no electricity for five days. For those families who have electricity it is just for lighting purposes and cooking by electricity is almost non existent.
The five Irish teachers are teaching English to adults and small children from the community, teaching a variety of subjects in the school and are endeavouring to set up a library, find computers so that they can teach the use of same to the children. Due to the fact that the five Irish teachers are so committed to the community many pupils who had left the school have returned, vastly increased numbers of first years have enrolled and for the first time there is now a fourth form in the school as prior to this pupils just left education.
So we are endeavouring to do the following:
- Pay partial school fees for those pupils who can not afford same.
- Pay for 90% of school uniforms for those who can not afford same.
- Set up a loan scheme for the curriculum books in the school. We hope to purchase a complete set of books for each subject, for each form, rent them out to the pupils at a nominal fee for the year, they would return them at the end of the year and the process would be repeated.
- Set up a library with a variety of school books and novels which can be used by both the children and the community. All unused school books except Irish language, the classics and other suitable novels.
- Set up computer literacy classes.
Would you like to Help?
If you have old school books that are no longer in use we would take them and send them to Suji. We already have many books which were collected by the teachers prior to leaving for Tanzania but we would take more. If you have any books please contact me at mpmescall@gmail.com and I will arrange collection or a suitable drop off venue. We intend to send these items as well as computers at the end of February. The transport of such items is very expensive.
Would you like to sponsor, a pupils school fees, or a uniform?
Would you like to sponsor the book lending scheme within the school?
If you would like to help in this area by either a once off contribution or a Direct Debit you can lodge to our registered charity account:
Tanzanian Village Renewal CHY 17968 Ulster Bank,
A/C No 10095595
Sort Code 9857 53
