Permanent Kitchen in Azimio Primary School

Recently I returned from Tanzania where I was volunteering at Azimio Primary School. What struck me about the staff and students was their enthusiasm, incredible work ethic and their desire to make the best of their underprivileged background and lack of facilities. Many of the students can't afford new uniforms and wear tattered hand me downs. They don't use textbooks and many of them don't even have copy books and pens to write down their lessons.

While spending time in Arusha I noticed that a lot of women wear elaborate braids and hairstyles. For hygienic reasons this is not an option for the girls in Azimio and many other schools where both boys and girls keep their hair buzzed very short. so you cannot assume genders. Having long hair myself I found this quite upsetting as many girls express themselves through their hair.

A lot of Europeans who haven't travelled to Africa may assume that the entire continent is dry and desert like, but Tanzania experiences frequent rainfall. Sometimes it rains so heavily that it is not safe for children to travel to school. The first time I went to Azimio was the day after heavy rainfall and the trail to the school was so muddy and slippery that everybody arrived at school caked in mud. It was unavoidable. The football pitch is a brown patch of dust or mud depending on the weather.

The school day is very long, starting at 6:30am and finishing at 4:30pm. Some of the students have to travel up to two hours to get to school, but in spite of this their appetite for learning is insatiable.

However, principal, Novatus Mlay, noticed the decline in learning in the afternoon classes because the children were getting tired and hungry. So, he decided to build a kitchen so the kids could get free lunch and be refuelled and focused for their later classes.

They built a temporary kitchen which consists of a big pot over a fire. sheltered from the rain by a few rusty sheets of corrugated iron held together with rough timbers and stones. Like the loaves and the fishes, they miraculously feed approximately 740 students on a daily basis. In a small plot they grow their own vegetables, something that Novatus is very proud of as it also gives the children a valuable life skill as well as contributing to the daily meals.

They are currently building a permanent kitchen with several stoves, windows and doors, but due to the lack of funding it is 3 years under way and still not completed. It is currently just the shell of a building, but while I was there the school got funding for windows and doors. Within two days of that news the windows had arrived and they were working hard to install them when I left.

Having seen all that they have achieved in Azimio with what little they have, I know that a little help will go a long way. These people really want to help themselves. If we can help them to do a simple thing: build a kitchen, our donations will have long term benefits for the children in the area who are so much less well off than ourselves.

Please help me to help them to make a difference.