The St Jude Foundation Christmas Appeal 2022

Raising money for The Heri Special School at Mporoto, Tanzania

Dear Supporters,

I hope you are all safe and well as another year draws to a close. This year, I thought I would include a brief update on the Heri School written by Safina Egha, the Headteacher. Safina has been headteacher since 2014 and has taken the school recently through some very difficult years. The Tanzanian Government provides no financial support for the school, and whilst the school has become much more self-sufficient due to the tireless efforts of Safina and her staff, every year is a challenge to keep the school running and its 39 pupils safe and happy. Some of the children have severe disabilities and, as you know, it is rare for such children to even be in schools in Tanzania. Safina remains positive and the photos show how happy the children are to be in school.

Safina writes:

We are fine, thank you and we proceed well with our daily activities. For the year 2022, we thank God for the blessings because some of our goals we achieved 100% but some of them we will continue with in the next year if God wishes. We achieved the following goals:

1. ACADEMIC ISSUES - Pupils learned how to wash clothes, how to cook some food and clean their environment. Pupils know how to write numbers like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10.

2. SOCIAL ISSUES - Pupils know how to greet, how to sing, how to pray and how to cooperate with other children.

3. ECONOMICS - Pupils learn about the world of work by cooperating with teachers and other parents to cultivate maize and potatoes.

CHALLENGES
We do not have enough tables and chairs for pupils and we need more - 30 tables and 22 chairs. We need more water for domestic purposes like washing clothes. We lack teaching aids, books and cooking instruments.

HOW TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES
To add 30 more tables and 22 chairs. To drill a well hole for water. To buy books and cooking pans.

Currently, the total number of pupils is 42 - 24 girls and 18 boys. We are going to close the school on 8th December and open again on 9th January 2023. I'm attaching some photos which shows different activities like studying, working at our farm of maize, and playing.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please pass on our thanks and greetings to our all supporters.

Your sincerely, SAFINA.

As always, I would like to thank Safina and her team for their dedicated support to the children and their families. Safina remains positive and firmly believes that with continued funding the outlook for the school continues to be good. We wish them all the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

How you can help

As she says above, Safina is very grateful for all your support. Let us try to help by raising money to buy the school some more tables, chairs and cooking equipment. I am sure we can help them find more water by sending money for them to build a well.

Please continue to support The Heri School and its children by making donations to the St Jude Foundation. A little goes a long way in rural Africa so even the smallest donation is gratefully received.

Donations to the St Jude Foundation can be made in a variety of ways and we have listed these at the bottom of the page.

I hope this newsletter and some of the photographs help you to see how valuable your support is to the life and soul of The Heri School. Thank you all once again.

Thanks also to Dylan, Neville and Jillian for their fantastic work behind the scenes keeping the St Jude charity going. I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Vivian Hinchcliffe