After spending some time in the village, you begin to realize why projects such as SHSS are so important to the future of Tanzanian children. Most, if not all of the villagers in Itoju and surrounding villages depend on agriculture as their source of income and survival. Crops such as bananas, plantains, coffee and mangoes are some of the staples of the region. As I learned while visiting, products such as coffee are grossly underpriced. This is interesting, especially when we see companies such as Starbucks out there priding themselves on "making farmers lives better". Not so fast Starbucks...
Education is the way up. It's written on the student's red shirts and it's in their minds. Walking through the classrooms on the first day of school impressed me. The kids are focusing on studies in areas of health, biology and algebra just to name a couple subjects. These can all be very tough subjects...now add to that that for most, all schooling is in the english language, for most students the english language is fairly new. The rule on the campus of SHSS is no Swahili - only english. Sounds tough, doesn't it?
Nothing is handed to the kids - they have to earn it. If it wasn't for projects such as SHSS, what would the future hold for the children of Izigo, Muhutwe & Mayondwe wards? Unfortunately, very little...
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