The opening of the school went well.  The teachers were well prepared and in the first week 35 students were enrolled.  We expect that this will increase over the next month as word gets out to those who may not be aware what is going on in the centre of the village, or parents who were waiting to see how things work.

Visit to Kitenden by Project Manager and Maasai Elder  Kisham, our project manager visited the school on the day of its opening.  He was accompanied by my friend Clamian, a Maasai elder who owns a tourism business and has worked on community projects who went to give the Head Teacher some business advice on managing the school finances and staff.  I have attached photos that they took of the school but unfortunately they arrived late in the village because of trouble with their vehicle (this happens in Tanzania as the roads are very bad and take a heavy toll on cars) and many of the children had just gone home, so there is only one photo with children in it. Kisham is back in the village this week and will take photos of the children. I think that you will find that the school is looking very attractive following the renovations.  They spent time with the teachers and inspecting how the school was set up.  Both Kisham and Clamian found the school in good order, but an issue was identified with the proximity of the toilet to the kitchen, which we are looking into.

Dear Sianga, Here is hope that this e-mail finds you and your lovely family. I have to admit that the school is in good order now and I thank  the Rotary Club of Albury Hume for funding this project and on behalf of my fellow Maasai who benefit from the school. I know how important it is for children to get a pre-school in Maasailand. When we were sent to school, it took us more than four years to be able to understand the teacher. By having a school like this one, means that these beautiful girls and boys will now attend primary school when they can understand the teacher and able to write and read. What a big impact Rotary Club of Albury Hume has brought to this land.

Kitende, located at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. They visited Kitende, which has a population of about 800, at the invitation of the Future Warriors Project (a charity registered in Queensland and Tanzania), to inspect the village preschool. The preschool was built 10 years ago and until 2009 the ongoing operations were funded by the village community. However, the long drought in East Africa led to loss of livestock and reduced the income of the village to the point where the community could not fund the preschool operations. The inspection indicated that the building was in a condition that could be relatively easily restored. The Massai children speak Massai – which is only verbal and not written. However, in Tanzania Primary and High Schools, the language is Kiswahili and unless the children are taught Kiswahili at an early age they have enormous difficulty with further education. Thus the project proposed is very straight forward – provide funding to restore and operate the village Preschool so as to provide basic language and other education for the children and thereby enable them to progress to Primary School and then to High School. Primary education is funded by the Government and the nearest Primary School is a 20-30 minute walk for the children. In addition the children will be provided with meals each day to help alleviate malnutrition.

The costs involved for this project are not high and involve –

–              Repair and renovate the preschool building of $4000

–              Annual Operating Costs of $12,300 for each of 2 years.

This will provide education and daily meals for 40 children and employ 2 teachers, 2 cooks,

a gardener and a security guard.

In addition the building will be utilized out of school hours as a Female Health Centre.

The funding of the Annual Operating costs are to be raised as follows –

–              Class Sponsorships at $310 which is the annual cost for a child. We are budgeting on obtaining  20 or more such individual sponsorships and in excess of 10 are already committed.

–              Rotary Clubs in District 9790  Assistant Governor areas of Group 8 and Group 9.

–              Our Rotary Club Board has agreed to provide $3000 each year

–              An application for a 2013 Rotary 9790 District Grant will be made in July 2013 and if successful will be utilized as part of the 2014 operating costs.

If we are successful in raising funding in excess of the required annual $12,300 this will be utilized to educate and sustain additional children as the preschool can accommodate up to 80 children.

Class Sponsorships

–              Local schools

–              Individual members of our Rotary Club. An extremely generous offer has been made by a     benefactor to match on a dollar for dollar basis the Class Contribution made by 10 of our club members for each of the two year period.  Three members have already offered to fund a Class Sponsorship and if another 7 members join we will have over 50% of the annual operating costs covered.