In August 2005, The Baobab Home revived the Breakfast Program of a Tanzanian NGO called SOCAC (The Society for Orphan Care and AIDS Control) based in Bagamoyo. The program had stopped due to a lack of funds. Volunteer Carissa Guild helped us to get the program started again, cooking for and looking after between 25-40 children. All of the original children had been identified by UNICEF funded research as “MVC” or most vulnerable. After a while though, the school schedule changed and children were getting ruler smacked for returning to school late after porridge. Older children stopped coming and the kids who came were all very young. Volunteers helped us to teach English, play structured games, go to the beach on Fridays and take sick children to the hospital. It went well but we were not meeting our original goal of serving hungry children in school.
In January 2008 most of our kids were old enough for primary school. We made sure everyone had a school uniform and was enrolled in school. We then packed up and moved over to the Kisiuani Primary school where many of the kids attend. Kisiuani is an area of Bagamoyo which was formerly populated by ex-slaves and remains one of the poorest regions of the town today. We therefore thought it most worthwhile to re-start the programme here.
Currently, we serve about 60 MVC at the primary school per day. The breakfast programme gives them a simple, high energy breakfast made from millet, soy, peanuts, corn and rice and is called “Uji”. We also add milk and a little sugar. It costs next to nothing to prepare and we are really grateful to Evelyn Cleynen and USAWA for helping us fund this programme. The Towndrow family just donated Dora the cow to us who will soon be supplying the milk and reducing the budget. A monthly donation of $30 would enable us to reach 10 more children per month.
Rama oversees the program and keeps an eye on the children and looks for indicators of problems at home (weight loss, injuries, illness, won or stolen uniform, etc.)It also provides an excellent opportunity for international volunteers to bring creativity and fun to the children in the kindergarten class who are incredibly excitable, enthusiastic and ready to learn.
Thanks to volunteers such as Marjolijn, Annelieke, Hilde, Daphne and Saskia we have purchased hundreds of school uniforms for children who had none and enrolled dozens of children who would not have gone to school.
