Please help us with our children’s library project

Hi, my name is Jane, and I first met Charles Loserian in 2022 when I spent the summer in Tanzania on the Inspiring Teachers programme, providing training to local teachers.

Of the many dedicated education professionals I met during that time, Charles stood out due to his inspirational and selfless vision and drive to enhance the future prospects of the children in his local area.

In 2018, when only in his early 20s himself, Charles had established “Little Dream Childcare”, a day care centre, with the focus being not only to provide education, but also meals, personal health and life skills programmes, thereby empowering children to escape the poverty trap.

After completing the training programme and returning to the UK, I maintained frequent communication with Charles, and we developed a deep friendship of mutual respect and support. I was delighted when he asked for my help with his new project, an extension of the education provision already provided within his day care centre.

I had no hesitation in setting to work to gather donated children’s books from my local community, who have been incredibly generous, and the next step was to transport them to Tanzania. This actually proved to be far more expensive and complicated than I had anticipated! The best solution, therefore was to start by taking as many books as I could myself in my luggage allowance on a return visit to Tanzania in late 2023, joining my friend Rebekah Kellow there, whom I had met on the programme back in summer 2022.

Little Dream Childcare is now trying to raise funds that will be used to build a permanent building to house the children’s library within its own compound. It will be known as Little Dream Watoto Library.( “WATOTO” is a swahili word meaning CHILDREN.)

● The central goals of the Little Dream Watoto Library will be to act as a hub for teaching and learning. It will develop After School Reading Clubs that promote the habit and culture of reading books. The intention is to invite primary students from both government and private schools to attend these after school programs, thereby inspiring students to be creative and problem solvers.

● Little Dream Watoto Library is going to ENSURE INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE QUALITY EDUCATION AND PROMOTE LIFELONG LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

We will continue to collect donated books to stock the library once built, and future plans will include integrating technology and digital tools including computers, and e-readers to further develop student literacy, so that our library will be able to play an essential role in teaching 21st century skills. For now, however, our urgent need is to raise funds to pay for the construction and furnishing of the building, including electric and water supply.

Having consulted construction specialists in Tanzania regarding local requirements and costs, our initial target to get the solid foundations built and the construction of the library building, to the dimensions as shown, underway, the amount we need to raise at this stage equates to £6000 and we would very gratefully receive any contribution you could make towards this, whilst we ourselves continue to pursue fundraising initiatives.