Day6-Monday
SiteVisit-2017
Monday 25th September
To FDC at 8.00 to meet Dr. Nick Vinal, FUM Treasurer who was passing through with his wife Mary and daughter Jo who is on a teaching assignment at Urambo Secondary School. We accompanied them to meet the District Executive Officer and District Commissioner. Then on to Vumilia to meet Augustine, the Chairman and other village leaders. We began our walk around the village, starting with the Clinic where we met the clinician and his laboratory assistant, watched curiously by a number of patients and children. They had requests to put to the Nailsworth Link as follows :
1. An extension on the clinic to house beds for ill patients;
2. Small equipment such as bowls, dishes, scissors, etc.;
3. Finance for the clinician to further his training;
At temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius, we walked through the village and were introduced to two very poor mothers/grandparents living in abject poverty but whose children are sponsored by the Nailsworth Link. We met two mothers and gave them the baby blankets (knitted and given by a Woodchester Parishioner) on the way to the primary school. We met the Headteacher who welcomed us and made a presentation in English. We watched dancing by the school children then met the teachers who discussed with us their concerns and needs as follows :
1. PE and games equipment
2. Support for a small group of special needs children (disabled, and vision problems –
need to go to a special eye hospital in Kilimanjaro Region)
3. Complete the refurbishment of classrooms (in hand)
4. Build new initial education classroom (for youngest pupils in their first year at school) -
Foundations are down but no finance available to finish it
5. Finance further training of teachers (in UK?)
6. Send Headteacher to Nailsworth for a brief visit during the summer holidays.
We them walked the half hour walk through the village to the secondary school, met the staff, had a tour of the school and classrooms, and sat down with them all to hear the Head’s welcome and informative speech in English and then to receive their requests, as follows, (again in order of being told, not priority order):
1. Extend the electricity cables to the second half of the school.
The cables only reach the buildings nearest the road at the moment;
2. Now that they have electricity, a computer/printer/photocopier;
3. New base for the rainwater harvesting tank as it currently leaks;
4. Meals for the girls in the hostel (the hostel caters for girls having to walk long distances
from home to school.
There is a real concern about the girls being sexually abused on their journeys to and from
school and thus avoid the possibility of unwanted pregnancies)
5. Sports equipment;
6. Musical instruments, e.g., brass instruments
7. Houses for teachers
8. Books for the students, especially history, geography and civics books
(to be bought locally to be in accord with the Tanzanian secondary curriculum)
9. Courses to expand the teachers’ knowledge (in UK?)
At the end of the day, we returned to Urambo to discuss the day’s events.
Daily Report Menu: