In July of the last academic year 17 students and 3 staff from the Community College visited our partner school Macechu Secondary School in Tanga, Tanzania. We had a wonderful, welcoming and enlightening visit. We saw at first-hand how the money raised last autumn by students and families at the Community College has improved the lives and prospects of so many young Tanzanians. In the last year we provided funds to enable 60 of the poorest students to access education, through providing uniform, stationary and other school equipment. We provided funds to safely accommodate two young girls who were at risk of abduction into modern day slavery. The group who visited took shirts for 400 students. They also paid for and helped plant 34 trees to provide shade for studying, as well as off-set the carbon emissions of their visit.
This autumn we will raise funds again for Macechu, maintaining our focus on supporting the most needy in their society. Macechu School recognises that the most reliable way of escaping and preventing future poverty is through education. Our funds enable students access to schooling which they would otherwise not be able to afford. This year we will be focusing particularly on supporting girls who are at risk of not completing their education due to poverty. In order to raise funds this year we will be doing the following:
- Coaching Group Challenge – each coaching group will be challenged to raise £100 during the autumn term (equivalent to approximately £3.50 per student). It is up to the group to decide how to do this. The only request is that the financial burden should not be placed directly on parents/carers.
- Tanzania Independence Day(9 December) – will be an optional non-school uniform day and no-pens day (for a donation of £2 per student). The rational for “no pens” is that we a re raising in part for stationary for Tanzania, so we want to experience (in a fun way) the inconvenience of not having a pen. Teachers will be asked to adapt their lessons on that day to remove the need for writing. The student senate may choose to run other events during the day, and there will be a KS3 pre-Christmas social event in the evening.
We do recognise that there are many other worthwhile causes to support, many of which are closer to home, and we are keen that our support for Macechu should not preclude support for other causes. The Student Senate selects other causes and charities to support throughout the year.
The main gain of our partnership with Macechu is to enable our students to develop cultural tolerance, awareness and understanding on a global scale. Whilst not all students can, or would want to, visit Tanzania, we hope that all can be involved in the partnership through activities such as those outlined above. I do hope you can support us too.
If you wanted to make a direct donation to our fund you can do so by bank transfer to Community College International Support (Account Number 20685168, Sort Code 30-99-50). This fund is run by seven staff/former staff at the Community College yet is independent of the main College funds. This enables us to directly distribute money to Macechu to be used to support the most in need.
Thank you in anticipation of your support.
Mr A Kirk Mr R T Thorley
Assistant Headteacher Headteacher