We have marvelous news to share today. Huruma will soon have a fully operative website, www.tzhuruma.org. There’s already a video on the “About Us” page, several entries on “Blog” and photos and information on the “Contact Us” page. Soon the Home and Events pages will be available as well as an option to Donate online. Thanks to Melanie Lucas for taking on this projects.
Now for updates on Huruma and its needs. The seven students pictured here are anxiously awaiting results of the recent exams which will determine their eligibility for secondary school. Their attendance in class (inclusive class) is amazingly good. And they like their class. For porridge and lunch they return to Huruma. With COVID and poverty, Huruma staff sometimes encounter a lack of parental support to these teenagers when they are back home from school.
Government support for school lunches is unrealiable. Recent elections in the non-governmental organization to which all Huruma parents belong have brought new leadership. Fortunately with this new leadership, parents have started to contribute for food shortage.
Huruma teachers are well, safe and productive. One member of the leadership team suffered a light stroke and is still under medical care, but has returned to work. With her dedication, enthusiasm and creative, Mathilda is an inspiration to staff and parents. Please pray for her complete recovery.
With the the help of our friends in Mwanza and one parent, Huruma has now installed electricity in our school building. When approached, two friends volunteered to provide electrical material for wiring and another to do wiring activity. Then one parent paid for installation charges with the Tanzania Electric Company. Now we have electrical power at our school. Up to now Huruma has used a generator to draw water from outside storage tanks to inside tanks that serve restrooms. The Director now does not have to worry about keeping his laptop charged. Teacher who do not have electricity at home will be relieved to charge cell phones at school. This also creates opportunities to explore educational uses of electrical equipment. Electricity may also be more economical for cooking than the current gas.
The Huruma garden has recovered from neglect during the dry season and COVID-19 holiday. Until the rainy season, which is expected to begin soon, students in the work skills program water daily, carrying buckets of water. The garden looks good and serves both for training and for student meals. Vegetables from the garden enrich student meals daily. In the background beneath the gorgeous Tanzanian sky, you can see the waving banana trees and farther behind, a residence hillside. Way off in the distance, but visible on a clear day, is Lake Victoria.
In the meantime, Huruma depends on our support for staffing, maintenance and educational materials. During the current pandemic, we have all realized our reliance of each other. Calls from family and friends, offers of help or cheer, government assistance, food banks have all kept us going in spite of physical restrictions. So we can imagine how Huruma staff and parents are buoyed by awareness of our accompaniment.
I hope to see many of you at our virtual Taste of Tanzania. If you won’t be able to attend, here’s information on how to help anyway until we have an option to donate online.
Huruma Special Education 