There is no typical week, month or year when overseeing 50 teenagers and young adults. What is typical is that all kinds of challenges will come out of nowhere – bumps or hurdles that EdPowerment will help our students overcome. Here is a glimpse at what students and staff, working together, have confronted so far in 2015.
ILLNESS: This spring was a tough one for several of our students.
- Lodga came home with a swollen knee and limited mobility in January. After several clinic visits in Moshi, we took him to a medical center in Arusha for more exhaustive testing and the diagnosis was gout. Now, several months later, Lodga seems almost back to normal, even on the soccer field.
- Deus and Florian are two of several students who came down with serious bouts of malaria that even required hospitalization and IV drips. Both have recovered fully and are trying to catch up on missed work – no private or school-sponsored tutors in TZ.
ACCIDENTS: Teresia, one of our Form 6 students feverishly preparing for National Exams in May, was carrying a pot of tea to the school dining hall when the handle broken, leaving her with 2nd degree burns. The dispensary where she initially was taken did not treat the burn properly, so Mama Grace quickly had to move her to a hospital. She remained there for several days, treated with massive antibiotics. Not only did Teresia miss valuable study days – she missed her school’s graduation ceremonies for her Form 6 class.
LOSS: And last week, Neema, a young Maasai woman currently finishing her coursework to teach Kindergarten in the Montessori method, received news that her uncle had died unexpectedly. The college called Mama Grace, who with our manager, Tom Kway, arranged for Neema to travel home and back in order to be with her family during this time.
Sponsorship begins in the classroom… but it is so much more. For students whose guardians have such limited resources, EdPowerment acts as a surrogate parent, always caring for their best interests in mind and body
