Report on Losinoni Primary School Delivered to Mr. Tom LeBlanc of USAID on April 14, 2010

Excerpts of Report of Head Teacher Ezekiel Ngungat on the Occasion of Mr. LeBlanc’s Visit

Dear guests, we are very happy to welcome you to Losinoni village and especially to our primary school. In Masai tribe we believe that guests are a blessing, so it’s a great pleasure to have you today here and please, do feel at home.
This Primary school was started in January 1975 with 80 pupils but now they have increased to 815 (Girls and boys), among them there are 43 pupils for informal education. The number of teachers is 8 and among them 6 are females compared to 2 male. One teacher is away for further studies.
Dear guests, the initial school buildings were constructed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania which by that time it was known as Diocese in Arusha Region. It has now changed the name to North Central Diocese. Four years ago many children in this village could not walk to school due to skeletal fluorisis caused by excessive fluoride in water. Many children had to undergo orthopedic surgery at Selian Hospital for rehabilitation. That problem is almost eradicated after a special water project funded by Rotary International. A six miles pipeline supplied water with less fluoride to the village and to the primary school.

2. AFRICAID FINANCIAL SUPPORT
The community in this village has been very lucky to receive some financial support for important education development for this primary school as narrated below;
1. Construction of four classrooms. Two are already being used for the past three years now and two are still under construction.
2. Renovation of three classrooms.
3. Providing the pupils with better and clean washrooms after construction of new toilets for the school.
4. Donation of learning material for pupils for the past five years now. For example, last year 2009 the school received text books worth 650,000 T.sh and this year 3,600,000 T.sh. for desks.
5. Addressing the shortage of desks in school which was a crucial problem. 100 desks were purchased and now pupils are sitting more comfortably during classroom sessions.
6. Innovative approaches in addressing hunger problem for pupils. Most of them usually attend school without taking breakfast and they had to stay up until 3 o’clock without any meals. AfricAid initiated a lunch program by selling jewelry in USA which was bought from the women in the village. This project is still going on.
7. Installation of Solar Power for running a computer and photocopier also donated by AfricAid. All teachers were earlier supplied with small portable solar lanterns.
8. Publishing a book on Losinoni children by involving some of the school pupils.

3. ACHIEVEMENTS FROM AFRICAID SUPPORT
The financial support from AfricAid has really made a difference to the lives of children in this primary school as mentioned below:-
1. Congestion of pupils classrooms has been reduced by at least 50 % - from 100 to between 50 and 60.
2. Created more conducive learning environment for the pupils after renovation and purchase of desks.
3. The pupils are not shy to visit the toilets because they are enough, clean and have privacy.
4. The pupils are motivated to learn as they have enough text books and other learning material.
5. Increased attendance in school. Most of the pupils including truants are attracted by school lunch. The food is now more nutritious after starting to provide cooked maize mixed with beans. (It is known as ‘makande’ )
6. The pupils are very active and participate fully in classroom sessions because they are well fed.
7. The teachers are now motivated to work because they can print tests for the pupils more conveniently using the computer and printer.
8. The above mentioned achievements have resulted in successful standard seven examination results. The number of pupils selected for Secondary school increased from 13 in 2004 to 64 in 2009. Only one pupil was not selected in a class of 65 pupils.
Those are very good and historical results for this school.

4. CHALLENGES
Dear guests, there are still some few challenges facing the school as listed below:
1. There are 120 orphans and vulnerable children in school. They deserve to be cared for and supported so that they could attend school regularly and even go to secondary school. However, the poor economical situation of the villagers does not allow them to support those children.
2. Inadequate chairs and tables in classrooms for the teachers
3. Inadequate teachers. The need is at least 15 but only 8 are available.
4. The teacher’s houses are not yet installed with solar power. This is a great need to supply them with power for more reliable light and also for running their TV set which will be an incentive for more teachers to join the school.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The school community is very grateful to AfricAid for their tireless support. Please, extend our regards to all of them. We thank you for your interest to visit us. We wish you all an enjoyable journey back home and you are welcome again.

Respectfully submitted
By Ezekiel Ngungat
The head teacher

Report on Losinoni Primary School Delivered to Ashley Shuyler and Sarah Norton

Excerpts of Report of Head Teacher Ezekiel Ngungat delivered in person to Ashley Shuyler and Sarah Norton on January 29, 2009

Ashley, we feel privileged to host your visit again today. In fact, you are no longer a visitor, but a daughter of Losinoni village who has been away for some time, and now coming back home. Please, you are welcome with your friend [Sarah].

As you know, this primary school was started in January 1975 with 80 pupils, but enrollment has increased to 726. Among them are 340 boys and 386 girls. Total pupils for informal education are 30, bringing the grand total to 756. There are 7 teachers only, and among them 5 are female and 2 are male. There is a shortage of 8 teachers.

We are pleased to inform you that the AfricAid organization has been our great financial supporter for the past five years now. We are happy and proud to know that you are spearheading those efforts. AfricAid started supporting our school with school material like textbooks, exercise books, pens and pencils. Also, construction and furnishing of two classrooms provided the children of this village with a good learning environment. Last year, we received more funds…for construction of two more classrooms, toilets and renovation of three classrooms. We are also receiving continued financial support to run the school lunch program which began two years ago…The pupils have been provided with porridge for lunch since 2007…Also, the pupils have a small farm where they grow maize as part of our self-reliance activities. For the past two years, they managed to harvest 15 bags of maize…and all of it put into the lunch program…The pupils also collect firewood for cooking porridge, while the parents contribute 20,000 shillings each month as a stipend for the cook who is volunteering to prepare lunch for the pupils.

…The pupils are now very active in the classrooms, as they get something to eat. There is also improvement in classroom performance. I hope you are well-informed
that most of the children attend school without having breakfast, and for many if not all, lunch at school is their only meal for the whole day. Currently, the school attendance has improved dramatically by 30% after the introduction of lunch.

Mr. Ben Allen [of the Evergreen Rotary Club] visited us in December of last year and provided us with the highlights of your efforts [to provide solar power] which is the great need for the whole school community. We are very delighted and thankful to learn that AfricAid has started some efforts with the Rotary Club to make this project a reality…Once this project takes off, we believe it will attract more teachers to join this school.

Dear Ashley, we are very grateful to AfricAid for their continued support for our school. Indeed, it has made a great difference to the children and people of this village. Please extend our regards to AfricAid members…We have been blessed to have you today. This is your village. We wish you a good stay in Tanzania and later on a safe and enjoyable journey back home.

Respectfully submitted by
Ezekiel S. Ngungat
Head Teacher

Letter to AfricAid from Ezekiel Ngungat

Excerpts from the Letter to AfricAid Provided by Mr. Ezekiel Ngungat

Dear Guests,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our school again and, please, do feel at home.

Most of the school buildings were constructed through support from the Diocese in the Arusha region. But later, we were lucky to receive more support for construction and furnishings of two more classrooms and also school material from AfricAid, through Selian Lutheran Hospital. We are really grateful to all of them for their kind support. Special thanks should go to them for spearheading all the efforts in fundraising and even participating in painting the two classrooms.

This school has also been supported by Rotary International for the piped water project, which included reservoir tanks for water harvesting. That project has effectively cut down the number of children with skeletal fluorosis. Most of the affected children were earlier supported by Selian Hospital to undergo orthopedic surgery. The majority of them have improved their school attendance, because they can now go to school without feeling any pains.

Your visit will provide you an opportunity to see the progress and achievements in our school since you initiated the school lunch programme for the pupils. The pupils’ attendance before lunch program has improved from 55% to 90%. The pupils are also very active and participate effectively during the sessions because they are filled, fed up.

The above achievements have been contributed by the donations from AfricAid. We are also aware of your current efforts in fundraising by selling the keychains and bracelets. We also appreciate your commitment in striving to fundraise more funds for the toilets, classrooms and desks. Your contributions and compassion have really made a difference to the children of this village.

The involvement of AfricAid in this school has also been an inspiration to the parents, who have started fundraising for money to pay for the cook’s salary who prepares lunch for the pupils. They have also contributed some money for constructing staff houses to accommodate more teachers, who are urgently needed to meet the increasing number of pupils.

Dear Guests, despite all the efforts to create a conducive learning environment for the school, still there are some challenges facing the staff and the parents. The school has inadequate desks, staff houses, pit latrines and also five classrooms need to be renovated. The prices of building material have gone up due to recent increase of prices for gasoline and also Tanzanian shilling depreciation. However, we still hope that any amount of funds or material which will be extended to the school will help to push further the progress of improving the learning environment.

We are very thankful for your support and your decision to visit us today. Kindly extend our regards to AfricAid members. Please tell them that we love them and we really value our relationship and their kind support. We hope some of them will manage to visit us again in the future.

We wish you a safe and enjoyable journey back home and you are welcome again to Losinoni. May God bless you.

Respectfully,

Ezekiel Ngungat
Head Teacher
Losinoni Village Primary School
On behalf of all the staff and the Losinoni Village Community