Kwa heri from Mama . . .
I am leaving today for six weeks with our children in
Tanzania and am anxious to reunite with our Tumaini family although it is bittersweet when travelling to one part of my family entails me
saying goodbye to the other.
All of
our primary students will be home for the month of August and I have some
special “Christmas projects” lined up while they are home. Additionally, we will replacing school shoes,
book bags, football cleats (soccer), and pyjamas thanks to (in photo - Emma & Jaslyn Chevers, Ryan & Ben Peever, Lisa
Chevers & Joanne Long, Charlene Cleland and myself, missing Debbie Peever)
of the Avondale United Church in Tillsonburg, who, after being introduced to
Tumaini in May, worked incredibly hard to bring us dozens and dozens of soccer
cleats, school shoes, book bags and pjs!
Thank you SO very much for your love!
Additionally,
Millie, Karen and Jim Baetz and the Fitzpatrick family oh so generously donated
some of those needed watches, pjs and SOAP! for our little ones! Remember that it is winter in Tanzania right
now, being on the other side of the equator, and although we don’t usually
conceive of cold in Africa, it actually DOES get quite chilly at night so warm
pjs are invaluable to us, not to mention the fact that with all the good food
we are providing our family they keep GROWING!!
Further
thanks go to Bibi Isabel for HER incredibly kind and generous donation towards
watches, as well as Lisa Engelhardt-Robinson of The DolMor Salon. Asante Sana!
As Mama Diane Goodman asked when I put the request for watches out,
“does this mean if they have watches they’ll learn to be on time?” (Tanzanians
are notoriously late) We can only hope
they’ll at least learn how LATE they are!!
Thank you so much!!
Lohai is back! He
has returned for his third summer and will spend time here on the farm with
“Baba”, improving his farming skills AND his English and then take those skills
back to Tumaini to help us there. Feel
free to call the farm to say hi!
August 3 and 4 are rapidly approaching and
Tumaini supporters are hard at work getting set up for our fundraising YARD SALE at 857 Norfolk St S. Simcoe, Ontario.
If you have something you’d like to contribute to the sale or would like
to come out and support us, please contact Charlene Cleland at char.cleland@yahoo.ca. to make arrangements and THANK YOU!!
AND! Our second
Charity golf tournament is fast approaching and we’d love for you to join us
September 29th at Springview Farms Golf Club in Waterford, ON. Please contact BonnieWardell@hotmail.com for
registration information and please know that we always need donations for golf
prizes if possible! I know that Bonnie
has more special fun planned for us this year (such as a “Pimp Your Ride”
contest), AND . . . two of our older Tumaini children will be joining us, in
addition to Lohai so you should get a chance to say hello and ask some of your
Tumaini questions!
On a truly sad note . . . Bad things do happen to good
people and we are not immune to it, even at Tumaini. Negative politicking exists everywhere and in Tumaini’s almost four years we have been challenged several times
by people who come with their own agendas and are, unfortunately, unable to
work together harmoniously, even when the beneficiaries are poor, orphaned
children. Recently, this has happened again at Tumaini and our precious Katy, I am so very sad to say, has become
a part of the fallout and found the need to leave us . . . Katy has resigned
from Tumaini for her own, personal reasons and we wish her all the best and
absolutely EVERY happiness in the future.
She has been a Godsend to us at Tumaini, a beloved sister to the
children and like a daughter to me. I am
heartbroken, but respect her decisions and let her go with a heavy heart full
of love and gratitude and do hope that one day things will be different. There are many, MANY things we can hold and
control in this world, but alas, this is not one of them. We love and will miss you Katy but know that
good and beautiful new adventures await you.
Thank you so very much.
 |
| An outstanding and deserving student, Omari. |
We are working on our Christmas giving campaign and this
year we would like to focus on an educational theme. We spend millions of shillings every January
outfitting and paying school fees for not only our unsponsored children, but
many, deserving, yet desperately poor kids who simply do not have a chance
at furthering their educations without help.
Often, there is nowhere to turn and at Tumaini we have worked hard to
give those chances to dozens and dozens of children, but it costs money . . . meet a boy named Omari who pulled a virtual miracle out of the air by earning
all As and Bs from a terrible public school with few teachers and little to no support.
He has no parents and only an older sister to help care for him and a younger
brother. His
sister’s baby developed a heart condition and “poof!” any chance of secondary
school went out the window with every dollar being spent to save the five month
old infant’s life. We helped save not
only the baby but Omari also and he has rewarded us with OUTSTANDING efforts, but . . . it costs money!
And there will be another Omari (or David, or Abdi, or Ayubu) this
year! The campaign will begin in October
with gifts ranging from $10.00 (to be applied towards school books), up to
$500.00 (school fees for one year) and we will send you a photo of the child
you helped along with his or her bio and supply ongoing updates! Please keep this in mind when thinking about
your Christmas giving!
As I said, the children are off for the month of
August. We will be busy with games and
activities and I’ll update you with photos and stories! They are busy this week finishing end of
second term examinations (I hope) and will be ready for some fun I expect! Report cards will be forthcoming.
From each of them (and their Mama) I would like to wish
each of you a wonderful August shared with your families and friends and say
enormous thank yous for your continued love and support. I cannot say it enough . . . we need
you. Your heart and your financial
contributions, in order to provide our children (who are oh so very deserving
by the way), with a healthy and safe life . . . with a quality education . . .
with love and with hope for their futures.
We work hard to ensure all of this happens with minimal dollars spent on
administration (only 9%), and are very proud of our performance thus far and we intend to continue to use your dollars as efficiently as is humanly possible in
order to continue to care for our children. Please be well and thank you!