Child sponsorship update from Arusha
25/10/2007
Update from Summer 2007
Dear Sponsor
RE: FIRST SEMI ANNUAL FACILITY REPORT FOR SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE ARUSHA 2007
Many greetings from your friends, children and the entire staff of the SOS children’s Village Arusha. I would like to update you with the progress of the facility for the six month (January June 2007)
The Village is doing well in all aspect and now operating in full capacity with 100 Children. All the children are very healthy and happy. They are really wonderful children and always are sources of our happiness as we watch them growing.
For the first time, we have a child in Secondary School. This is our oldest boy Dennis John Kinabo who is now 15 years old. He joined form one in January 2007 in the government school after performing very well in his National examination. We are very proud of him.
The other children are well in their classes and we are expecting that the eight children we have in class seven this year will all perform well and joins Secondary School next year.
We have 14 children in class VI, 19 in class V, 15 in class IV. We have also 13 children in class III, 8 in class II, 7 in class I and 14 in nursery school. This makes a total of 100 children including one in secondary school. This was after admission of two children, Sophia Lesilale and Bruno Gregory in March. Bruno replaced Baraka Gabriel who refused to stay in the centre despite the efforts from the Village Director.
The academic performance of the children during the period was above 60%
The children and staff celebrated SOS day on 23 June with songs and drama. It was a colorful day and children enjoyed it very much.
Family Strengthening program process has already started by identifying families and buildings are on rehabilitation process. 201 beneficiaries have been identified from the village/community neighborhood.
We really thank you for your wonderful support during this period. Whatever achievement we have achieved during the period was made possible by your support
God Bless you a lot and may he give your good health and strength to carry on with your daily activities.
Loishiye Marambo
Village Director SOS CV Arusha
Sponsor's update from Zanzibar
Update from Summer 2007
Dear Sponsors and Friends,
Zanzibar has reached its highest recorded temperature of 36°C. We prayed it to be a blessed season, which would bring good harvest of crop, though some damages was caused due to the excessive rain and wind. Economically, life is still getting tougher due to sharp increase of fuel prices, which cause a dramatic rise in cost of living. Our SOS mothers have also lamented due to this inconsistence which affects their budget plans.
The current number of children in the 11 family houses is 99. Plans to increase the number of children at our Village is ongoing. The Village plans to reach the target number of 110 before December 2007.
The nursery school admitted four of our SOS children to join the nursery school. Other six children have advanced to nursery school class three, and at the SOS Primary School, twelve of our children started schooling in class I as among new students. Fifteen of our children visited Chumbe Island (one of the Zanzibar islands) as reward for good academic performance for 2006. The children were accompanied by Village Educator and the wife of the Village Director who initiated and organised the trip in late February.
Also more emphasis has been put on SOS mothers to continue helping their children in their studies in order to increase academic performance. As a result the performance of our children once again rose to 67% by the end of 2006 for those who scored 60% and above.
University students from Dar es Salaam, hosted by Zanzibar University visited the Village. They made donation of caps to children, exercise books, writing pens, bar soaps, mosquito nets, and biscuits. Fortnight weekly visits are held by students from Democracy Institute Zanzibar, who are strong base of community-minded volunteers. Their visits aim at helping the SOS in keeping the community clean and also educate our children on communities’ ties. Their visits would end in friendly matches with our youths, which has been very encouraging to our children partially as duty and leisure.
The school organized colourful graduation ceremonies for the students who completed Standard Seven and Form IV. In the standard Seven Graduation ceremony, the Minister of Communications and Transport who was the Guest of Honour promised to construct the side road to the village and school as his contribution to our school. The O'level National Examination results which came out in March 2007 were quite good. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education donated story books for the library and Form IV and parents donated water cooler for staff as a token of goodwill to our school.
The Engineer from the Regional Office arrived in Zanzibar to finalise with contractors. So that the contract may eventually be endorsed and construction of the Social centre may start. The Social Centre, under construction, when completed will also have a VCT which will be mainly aimed at expectant mothers with the purpose of controlling infection to the newly born. Meanwhile, our laboratory at the Medical Centre is extensively being used by all stake holders for various tests including HIV tests. Zanzibar's still relatively low HIV prevalence has by now reached 0.9 percent, but in 2002 it was estimated at just 0.6 percent.
Annually, in the Stone Town, the ancient and exquisite maze of narrow alleyways on the seafront of Unguja (the largest of the islands of Zanzibar), Zanzibar music festival, the so-called Sauti za Busara (Sounds of Wisdom), is held in the gardens near the Old Fort.
The result has been an intriguing musical experiment. World music tourists now come to Zanzibar to check out the festival, which has begun to rival those other African attractions, the Festival in the Desert and the Segou Festival in Mali, or Morocco's Festival. The host presents Taarab which blends African, Arabic and Asian music, dating back to the 19th century. If you happen to visit the Spice Islands, it is recommended to spend an evening at a Taarab show to get acquaintance to a Zanzibari culture.
Hope our report offers both a glimpse of a faraway world and a frank look at our achievements, expectations and our situation. Thank you for being part of us,
I remain,
Asya Maulidi
Sponsorship Coordinator
Relevant Countries: Tanzania.