A visit to the Africa branch ①,

The future leaders of Tanzania

For 23 days from 18th June to 11th July, we visited four African countries to monitor our projects. We visited Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda, countries working on child welfare project and Kenya, performing community development.

The Gateway to the animal kingdom,

Arusha, Tanzania

I finally got on the plane to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania after about 13 hours of flight from Incheon to Nairobi, Kenya. In Tanzania we will start our long 24days of journey. I looked through the window when I heard people`s amazed exclamations. I could see the lofty peak of the Mt Kilimanjaro through the clouds. Then I realized that I am in Tanzania.

Arusha is located on the north of Tanzania and it takes full 12hours from the capital, Dares Salaam by land. However, it is much closer from Nairobi, taking only 5hours by land.  Its` main source of revenue is tourism, since it is a gateway to famous attractions such as and Serengeti. However, there still is a big gap between the rich and the poor leaving many in poverty.

Tanzania is a country highly depending on external economy where 40% of the budget comes from the Official Development Assistance (ODA). Also many problems are uprising due to the corruption spread over the country. Among those, the fall of public education is one of the biggest issues. There is a free public school. However the facilities are poor and they do not have money to hire enough teachers needed in school. Also, as many other developing countries, students are not given proper textbooks for their classes. Due to these poor conditions, there are many who can neither write alphabet nor their name even after graduating public elementary school. Parents wish to send their children to private schools for better education but they just don`t have enough money. 

From December 2012, we are running a child welfare project together with the Arusha New Vision school, Enkikaret new vision school, and Tumaini orphanage. Arusha New Vision school has both pre-school and the elementary school courses (grade1to7). There are 10 administrative staff including project manager Lee Jong Soon(이종순) and 30 local teachers educating students. In addition, photovoltaic lighting system computerized the school system and also led to computer classes for the students. A water tank and a fence were built to provide enough water and safer place for the students.

400 students of the Arusha New vision school get good lunch and a snack every school day except for the Fridays with only morning classes. Also the school provides art and physical education classes such as Music, Art, Computer, and Taekwondo besids the basic curriculum to help the students` emotional development. The school focuses on choosing teachers with higher standards since it is of the priority to get better teachers for better education. The school receives candidates frequently and hires teachers who can give the class in English through internal assessment and training. Also it runs a training course for teachers twice a year so they can keep on improving themselves. Now the school is planning to open a parent seminar.

The day we visited Arusha New Vision School, another special guest visited. The Taekwondo performing team from the capital, Dares Salaam. The performance was an exciting experience for the students especially for 3rd graders and above who attend Taekwondo classes in school. The performance-starting from basic moves, kicks and the restrained tile breaking demonstration, plus the Tae-gwon-mu made the noisy, mischievous students concentrate. They followed after the breaking slogan and cheered during the show.

After the Taekwondo performance, there was a reply performance from the school. I was proud of the students following the moves after their coach David, who was trained in the Taekwondo institute in Korea for a year.

As you are informed above, our foundation is operating not only intellectual but also physical and socially balanced education. We hope you keep an eye on how these kids will grow up to be influential leaders.

A place where the Masai coexists peacefully with animals,

Enkikaret, Tanzania 

The day after I came to Tanzania, I got on a trip to visit the New Vision School, Enkikaret, which our foundation and the New vision school in Arusha cooperate with. On the way, I could see goats grazing, cows and other livestock along the sides of the one way road. I could also notice people around them and was surprised to see little kids who are supposed to be in school. From what I heard of the local business manager, parents don`t send their children to school and make them do the house chores since except for those related with tourism, most Tanzanians live on farming. Therefore, many kids don`t even get the chance of education

The word ‘Enkikaret’ means thorn in Swahili. The region was named as there are many thorns around. I could see spiky thorns around the village. Children always come to school with thick dust on their feet due to the dry, barren climate. In September dust storm often occur which fills the air with gray dust.

Enkikaret is a region where the well known Masai tribe inhabit. The New Vision School, Enkikaret provides education to the kids of the tribe. At first, it wasn`t easy to gather the students. It was mostly because of the living environment of the Masai Children were supposed to help their parents to look after the livestock and so parents were unwilling to send their child to school, in the belief that the kids would go against the Masai tradition if got educated. However, after visiting every household we could convince them to send their kids to school and now we have total of 200 students-3 classes in preschool, elementary students from 1st to 3rd grade-receiving the benefits of the Enkikaret school. .

There is a Masai public school in Enkikaret. Yet students are not well educated just like others going to public school, not being able to spell their names. After the New Vision school in Enkikaret started, there were even rather special requests to let graduates get into the new vision pre-school classes. We are now arranging a special class starting from the basics for these students since we cannot put 13years olds with 5 to 6 year olds kids.

The popularity of the New Vision School does not end here. At the beginning of this year too many students registered to our pre-school that there were not enough classrooms. Eventually one classroom had to hold 70 students. Even kids 5-6 walk more than an hour to attend the class. I really appreciate Masai’s growing interest towards education. 

There are special classes for the girls who graduated the New Vision School. This started because of the early marriage tradition of the Masai, arranging the graduated girls to get married with the dowry. The Enkikaret is trying to prevent this by letting them continue with the further education, hoping to give broader choices for the girls in their future. 

     The biggest change of the Enkikaret after working with our foundation is the free school meal. This is the only proper meal Masai children are getting in a day. Many kids of the Masai are suffering nutrition deficiency. This may hinder the growth of children’s body and also the development of their brain, causing learning disabilities, so it is important to prevent it beforehand

As always, meal was provided on the day I visited. The dish was called  ‘Pilau’ made of goat meat. The goat meat of Tanzania tastes better than anywhere else since the goats are freely grazed. The ‘Pilau’ is a rare dish, only seen during the village festival. Due to students’ love of school meal, the school is upgrading the diet, providing meat once a week instead of providing it once a month. Although children eat lunch under tree since there isn`t a proper canteen, their faces look bright when waiting the meal. It costs less than 1000 Korean won for a happy meal to these children. I felt in person that even little things can be a big hope for them.

After looking around the New Vision School, I visited the village called Buma(meaning village in Swahili) where the Masai actually live. In Buma, none of the children were going to school. Flies followed us as we get off the car with sweets we brought. There were flies everywhere, even on the eyes and lips of children. They seemed like they have given up on getting rid of the flies. There were so many flies because of the bad sanitary of the village such as the usage of cow dung when building houses and drinking dirty water.

After we got into the village we could see the kids gathering one by one. There was dust all over them. The innocent smile spread on their faces as we give them candies. I felt sorry not being able to give out or do anything more for these kids when I saw them being so happy with just small thing.

They can`t come to school yet as elders stand against it but I am leaving Tanzania with the hope that one day, with the continuous persuasion of the school staffs, these kids get the chance to come school and safely and receive the education and step toward wider world.

Asante(Thank you), Tanzania!