As I wrap up my time in Arusha, I thought it would be worthwhile to share a little bit about some of the other volunteer work being done here and give a bit more perspective on the challenges facing Tanzania and its children. (I'll be leaving Arusha to hike Kilimanjaro today. I'll tell you all about it and share my last Tanzanian tales when I'm back home.)
Errat Care Center
The pictures below are at The Errat Care Center. It's a non-profit seeking to provide education to children on the outskirts of the city. It is also striving to provide community education programs to help adults learn new skills to better provide for their families. As limited as the resources are at the Jue school, here it is even worse.
It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dirt and dry, brown grass. It is a shell of a building - the roof doesn't meet the ceiling, the windows are open, the floor is dirt, and the warped blackboard rests on cinder blocks. When it rains, everything gets wet, and the class clusters in the center of the room. One girl walks an hour each way to get there. As part of her trek, she has to cross a big gorge. Unfortunately, she can't cross it to go to school when it floods in the rainy season. And she is lucky...she is the only kid in a town of 40 who goes to school at all.
There is a single teacher at the school who is only 19 years old. She speaks limited English, but tries to teach it to the children. During the first lesson my friend Claire saw her teach, she told the children that the "arm" is the "hand." The classroom is generally chaotic with kids ranging in age from 3 to 7 years old. They are all taught the same thing at the same time. Claire has made great strides teaching some of the children their numbers and letters while older children are learning English greetings and colors.
Besides a basic lack of educational resources, these children are medically challenged beyond the normal dirtiness of kids here. There is a very sickly looking boy with HIV (who just got sponsored to go to a real school.) There is a girl with a black and infected thumb. Scabies and ringworm are endemic. Claire actually bought scabies meds for a whole family...a mom, the student, and a baby. The son had scars on his back from scratching them so hard. One treatment and he was cured...for now.
Claire has also been working to help get funding to dig a well for the community. Now, people walk hours each day to get water...which is opaque and muddy.
Living here is more than rough.
Errat Care Center
The pictures below are at The Errat Care Center. It's a non-profit seeking to provide education to children on the outskirts of the city. It is also striving to provide community education programs to help adults learn new skills to better provide for their families. As limited as the resources are at the Jue school, here it is even worse.
It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dirt and dry, brown grass. It is a shell of a building - the roof doesn't meet the ceiling, the windows are open, the floor is dirt, and the warped blackboard rests on cinder blocks. When it rains, everything gets wet, and the class clusters in the center of the room. One girl walks an hour each way to get there. As part of her trek, she has to cross a big gorge. Unfortunately, she can't cross it to go to school when it floods in the rainy season. And she is lucky...she is the only kid in a town of 40 who goes to school at all.
There is a single teacher at the school who is only 19 years old. She speaks limited English, but tries to teach it to the children. During the first lesson my friend Claire saw her teach, she told the children that the "arm" is the "hand." The classroom is generally chaotic with kids ranging in age from 3 to 7 years old. They are all taught the same thing at the same time. Claire has made great strides teaching some of the children their numbers and letters while older children are learning English greetings and colors.
Besides a basic lack of educational resources, these children are medically challenged beyond the normal dirtiness of kids here. There is a very sickly looking boy with HIV (who just got sponsored to go to a real school.) There is a girl with a black and infected thumb. Scabies and ringworm are endemic. Claire actually bought scabies meds for a whole family...a mom, the student, and a baby. The son had scars on his back from scratching them so hard. One treatment and he was cured...for now.
Claire has also been working to help get funding to dig a well for the community. Now, people walk hours each day to get water...which is opaque and muddy.
Living here is more than rough.
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| The school "building." |
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| Cinder block walls, dirt floor, and decrepit blackboard. |
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| No toys? A shoe becomes a car. |
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| Even so...all smiles with Claire. |
Cradle of Love is a baby orphanage. As I've mentioned before, there are countless orphans in Tanzania, largely due to the AIDS epidemic. This orphanage is run by an American family. In the grand scheme of things, it is a very nice facility, complete with a playground.
The children are adorable and love to play. One of their first words is "again!" They do cry a lot though and constantly want to be picked up and held. They are held so often in fact that many experience delayed walking.
The stories of some of the children are incredible. Karen was brought in by her grandparents because her parents basically left her in a corner to die. Vivian, who is blind and has cerebral palsy, was left in a closet to die, but was discovered by her neighbors when they heard her crying. Pendo was starving because her father was dead, and her mother didn't have work and couldn't feed her. She was skeletal when she arrived at Cradle. As she's gained weight, she's been relearning how to walk. And she's been smiling again...with the dimples she had lost in her emaciated face.
Life here is hard, but there is hope.
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| Nothing beats being held. |
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| The kids just love to be hugged. |
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