A Tanzania Update
More then 750 people from Scottsdale Bible sponsor 900+ children and fund projects at our two schools in Tanzania. Managed by our ministry partner, Ereto East Africa Foundation, these schools are thriving and changing lives on a daily basis. 2014 is a historic year for The Tanzania Project. In November, we will witness the first graduation of students from our Kondoa and Mairowa Integrity Schools. These graduates will have successfully completed an excellent English-taught, Christian-based primary school education, and many will be eligible for secondary school. Students from both schools have repeatedly scored well on their Tanzanian National exams, placing within the top five schools in their districts.
Construction continues with the addition of a new borehole and pump to provide the school with a consistent water supply. Faulty equipment in Kondoa created an acute water shortage and the new pump will enable the school to sustain itself and potentially sell water to the public. A new “modern” latrine was also added. We welcomed a wonderful new headmaster, Mr. Angelo, to the school recently. He brings vast experience as a primary and secondary school teacher and headmaster.
Pastor Anna, from Ereto East Africa Foundation, continues to minister to 50 impoverished single mothers in Mairowa. Through a partnership with Convoy of Hope, they are learning to grow vegetables for their families and sell them at the market. They have also planted two acres of mooring trees and sell the leaves to The Moringa Consultancy of Arusha. Both projects will be self-funding and will help the women purchase goats and improve their homes. Their hard work and successes are encouraging to their families and other community members.
The school’s three-acre agricultural plot has a new drip-irrigation system and is producing crops to supplement the school feeding program. Crops are also sold commercially, helping the school toward self-sustainability.
The two Bible schools continue to thrive. One is a certificate course, and the other a diploma course from Agape Bible School of Arusha, Tanzania. Thirty pastors and local Mairowa lay leaders are being taught by qualified teachers to interpret and teach the Word.
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Twelve-year-old Rehema Jacob is in year seven at Mairowa Integrity School. She lives in Mairowa village with her mother, “Mama Rehema.”
Her Life before Sponsorship
Rehema’s parents separated when she was two because of differing religious beliefs. She and her mother moved into a small hut covered by pieces of rotting iron sheets, plastic bags and soil. During the rainy season, the grass could not cover their house properly, so everything inside got soaked. It was so bad when storms came that her mother would often beg neighbors for shelter.
Her mother didn’t have a job and although she tried to take care of her little daughter, they often survived on one meal a day or less. When little Rehema’s health condition deteriorated due to malaria and subsequent complications, the environmental conditions and lack of food became life threatening.
How Sponsorship Made a Difference
Rehema’s life has made a 180 degree turn for the better. She no longer lives in a hut, but in a modern house built through sponsor donations. She receives a quality Christ-centered education, medical care, school uniforms and supplies, and daily nutritional meals. Rehema is healthy, doing well academically, and wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
Mama Rehema has become a model to the other parents in the community who want the best for their children. She is thankful for the support and relief through Rehema’s sponsorship and recognizes the value of her daughter’s education.
Through our parent education efforts, she was inspired to create a home garden to earn income to feed her family. She takes great pride in her work and being able to provide for her family.
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Bahati Hussein, a 9-year-old Kondoa Integrity School student, was recently sponsored by the Gibbs family (Ben, Jill, Haley and Ethan). The Gibbs are new to the sponsorship program and traveled to Tanzania in January 2014 to visit Bahati.
During the visit, Bahati’s mother became very ill and was taken to the hospital. Tests were ordered, but no definitive diagnosis was made. She was to return weekly for two months to have her lab work monitored. One week after the Gibbs returned home from Tanzania, they learned that Mama Bahati had passed away. Bahati was now an orphan.
Jill Gibbs writes, “This week an amazing thing happened! The Lord put it on my heart that we should adopt our sponsored child from Tanzania. She is an orphan now that her mother has died and she has no father. A neighbor has taken her in. Ben had been thinking about it even longer than I had, but didn’t say anything.”
They discussed this with their family and moved forward with emails and phone calls to investigate the adoption process. Jill continues, “We now face a seemingly impossible ‘road block’ as we learned you must live in Tanzania for three years in order to adopt. But we serve a God who is able to do anything He wants. He is even known for miracles.”
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Sponsorship has a profound effect not only on Tanzanian children, but on sponsors as well. God can change lives through sponsorship and for the good of His Kingdom.
More than 150 children are currently waiting for sponsors. For $35/month, you can sponsor a boy or girl in one of these villages. The effect of an education can be transformational for a child and for their entire community.
We are excited to see the good that is happening as Scottsdale Bible people continue to partner with the Lord in this effort.
Learn more about the Tanzania Project at scottsdalebible.com/tanzania
