Dear IOP family members, we welcome you to read about the events that happened at IOP in the month of March 2022
Articles:-
- Education Journey
- International Women Day
- Library Project
- AGRIEDO Visit at IOP Center
- Meeting with Sponsored Students Completed Form Four in 2022
- Farm Project at Lords Hill Secondary School
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With the ever increasing number of students at Sunflower Pre and Primary school, the buses that ferry the students to school and back to their homes has been becoming inadequate. As the popularity of these schools increase due to their excellent academic track record, the schools spearheaded by IOP have seen a surge in number of students, especially following last year’s excellent performance by Class 4 who performed superbly. Due to increased necessity, the funds for a third bus were gathered by IOP Tanzania.
For the past 4 years, there have been 2 school buses for day scholar students, however late last year, due to the increased number of students there was not enough room for all the students going to their respective destinations to fit in the bus. So through internal sourcing from Lord’s Hill Secondary and Sunflower Pre and –Primary Schools a portion of the funds was gathered, the rest being loaned out, the third bus was bought and paid for, and as per government mandates, painted yellow. The borrowed funds are repaid in monthly instalments over 24 months.
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IOP is expecting to see an even greater uptick in student’s number due to the excellent academic performance of all classes, in particular the boarding class 7 students, motivating parents across the country to send their children to Sunflower pre and primary school so that they can pursue greater knowledge.
Of course, because part of the money was loaned out, we here at IOP Tanzania welcome any supporter to support on loan payment so that we can maintain our excellent standards and to ensure the continued safety of the students that go home at the end of the day. With the greater number of students that will need to be sent home at the end of the day a third new bus is able to get those students home safely and quickly. All help is always greatly appreciated, the students and IOP Tanzania would like to thank everyone who makes this possible and for more details the appeal petitioning for the third school bus will be linked to this newsletter.
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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY |
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The 8th of March, internationally known as Women’s Day, was a day full of festivities and celebrations where by in Kilolo District the celebrations was done at Ilula Sokoni. The organisers of this event were IOP, Amani Orphanage, Compassion Ilula, SIDO, TAHEA, Kilolo District Council and the Local Banks. The day started early for those organising the event, first on the list of things to do was preparing the stalls for those that were using them later in the day. Then it was off to the hospital, to visit the birthing mothers that had just come out of labour. Tired and exhausted from the beautiful act of bringing a new life into the world, the new mothers were given gifts such as fruits and washing materials.
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Then at 9:00 a.m. people were ferried from the IOP compound to Ilula Sokoni via the school buses that were provided. At the festival people were granted stories and testimonies of the Young Mother’s that were able to start-up businesses such as a small café that was funded by IOP. Other testimonies were also given by women who had been given very low-interest loans by the banks here in Tanzania to start-up their respective businesses. These testimonies were shared on the stage to the audience, but the women peddling their stuff from the stalls would also explain their stories in a more intimate one-to-one fashion. Overall it was a festival for the empowerment and uplifting of women here in Tanzania, where they might otherwise be overlooked.
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The Guest of Honour for the celebration was the Kilolo District Commissioner who sent a representative to give a speech on the importance of Women’s Day, internationally but especially here in Tanzania.
Not only speeches were given but IOP Change Program’s youth prepared acts of dance and short plays to get everyone into the festival mood. During the event Scouts worked as security to make sure nobody got too festive.
We would like to thank you all for making this event possible, though women should be appreciated every day. And on the 8th of March we can externalise that appreciations as much as possible. Thank you to everyone for making the event possible.
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Natasha Cecile Mpiana a volunteer from Luxembourg worked in a children’s library in Luxembourg. During that time she learned how books can have a positive impact on education.
Since IOP have a library she thought it would be interesting to use books with the afternoon class pupils from IOP Kid’s Corner, to learn English. So every Friday she has a session with the kids in the library and the other times she brings books to school. During the session there is a teacher for translation and to learn the method in order to continue after her departure.
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Right now she is teaching the topic about animals. The pupils learn, for example, the difference between wild and domestic animals; animals’ sounds; etc. through stories but also by using songs. In the first session, they visited the library: Naomi Pajenga, the librarian, explained the visiting rules, and read a story “Lola at the library”. Through this book the pupils did not only have fun but also understood what a library is meant for and how to use it. The three next times she brought the books at Kids Corner and read a story about a family visiting a national park. Apart from learning the wild animals' names, the children also had to count. The most interesting thing about books is that they often teach different subjects at the same time: like animals and numbers, or fruits and colors, etc.
Kids were divided into two groups; one was learning the animals through the story, the other one through a poster. In the end they did a small game and the group that recognized the most were the story group. This is the power of learning through books. We are reaching the end of this topic and the last activity will be to visit the animals’ at IOP.
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On 18th March 2022, IOP received guests from Agriedo Company Limited; the guests were welcomed by the IOP Managing Director, Resource Mobilization Manager together with the IOP Center girls. The guests came with gifts for the girls which was the school bags/kits with different school materials in it. Each school bag contained four notebooks, five pens, five pencils, crayons, rubber, scissors, ruler and sharpener. Each girl was given one bag. The girls received the gifts with a great gratitude and they were very happy to receive them.
We thank Agriedo for the great support to the girls.
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MEETING WITH SPONSORED STUDENTS COMPLITED FORM FOUR IN 2021 |
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On Wednesday the 23rd
of March, IOP sponsor program office had a meeting with 45 (28F, 17M) sponsored students who completed Form Four in the years 2021 in various schools. These students are sponsored by IOP Committees as follows IOP Netherlands 7 (6F, 1M), IOP Norway 11(5M, 6F), Luxembourg 11(4M, 7F), Italy 4(3M, 1 F), Germany 1F, USA 10 (3M, 7F) and Sweden 1M. 32 students out of 45 attended the meeting. Some students failed to join the meeting due to different reasons like living very far away. These students have graduated from Lord’s Hill Secondary School, Ilula Secondary and other schools back in December 2021. And for those who performed well in their exams are waiting to be enrolled into another school to continue their studies in Form 5 and 6 the second last two years of secondary education.
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The students arrived in the morning, where they were asked to open the meeting with a speech and a recollection of their experiences. The students were talking in Swahili, with an English translator on hand for the translation of the meeting for the IOP Committees that requested it. The students were asked to share their national examinations results, their expectations of the results and the subsequent feelings that arose when they met or in some cases failed to meet their expectations. Some students were ranked in division 1, the highest grade one can get, and they explained their elation at the fact that they had managed to achieve such a thing, some others only received a grading of division 2 or 3, and they explained their disappointment and dissatisfaction at the fact. The grading scale goes from Division 1 to division 0, with division four being the worst passing grade, and division 0 being a fail.
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After the speeches given by the respective students, they were asked to share their future plans amongst one another, whereby some students wants to become doctors or lawyers, teachers, tailors, soldiers etc.
After this, representatives from IOP’s Sponsor Program office highlighted the sponsored children’s responsibilities, which they have to study hard, write letters to their sponsors twice a year, take pictures, do community service work in their respective towns and villages and above all submit progress reports or grades, and share any health issues with the staff in IOP Sponsor Program office.
Then they were given the guidelines and rules for being given the privilege of being a sponsor child. They were told that they had to maintain an adequate disciplinary record and that if they were to be expelled from school for any reason that this would lead to expulsion from the sponsor program as well. This being the case as well if one was to become pregnant whilst still in school.
Then after this message the students were given lunch and a drink, where they were able to socialise amongst one another and get to know each other as they all share that they are sponsored by IOP. After lunch they went back to their homes.
IOP Tanzania thanks all sponsors for making it possible for these students to go to school, where they otherwise would not have the means to do so.
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FARM PROJECT AT LORD’S HILL SECONDARY SCHOOL |
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The Lords Hill Secondary School has 4 acres for farming activities as part of students learning by practice. The school farming project is supported by IOP German who gave the school 4 acres of land to be used by students, maize and sunflower seeds together with fertilizers. Currently the students have planted two acres of maize and two acres of sunflower. As part of learning students has participated in planting, weeding and application of fertilizers. The Lords Hill Secondary School team convey sincere thanks to IOP Germany for supporting the school in many ways. This has made student learn and get agricultural skills practically as they participate in those activities after class lessons as party of extra-curriculum and refreshing.
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Fundraiser for Ilula Tigers Sports Club |
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To achieve this, IOP, with an assistance from Jussi Jaatinen, a volunteer from Luxembourg, organizes the fundraiser for Ilula Tigers Sports Club. The funds will be used, among others, for standardizing the sports grounds, construction/improvement of goals, covering the costs for training and maintaining the team(players including travel costs, meals and accommodation) and training materials(footballs, bibs, whistle)
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CONTACT INFORMATION
If you would like more information about projects and/or sponsoring opportunities,
Please contact:
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