Better Lives

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Moshi, TZ – Local community organization is requesting assistance for disadvantaged rural schools – Mar 2024

Local community organization Tupendane wishes to expand its assitance to more newly applying schools, which have students who are not assured a meal every school day. The need of many children in the Kahe School Ward has been increasing. Tupendane currently has resources to support four schools in the area, and is facing the challenge of finding a way to serve more schools with their Grow-own-Breakfast (GoB) program.

Since last year, Tupendane’s current and retired team members have collaborated with other stakeholders in the area so that little by little they expand the community’s capacity to feed more school children with the GoB program.

Kisangasangeni Primary School is a school that had left the Tupendane breakfast program many years ago. The school has now rejoined the program, so its 388 children are now benefiting by eating the harvests from the school gardens supported by Tupendane team. The childrens’ meals are now more nutritious because the vegetables they grow are in the recipe. They even grow some excess vegetables that they sell to gain income, which is used to buy corn and beans that are needed for feeding the children every school day.

Local community organization Tupendane team’s relationships in the community have identified a good buyer of the school’s excess vegetables. It is Mama Saumu’s Kiosk, which is benefitting the community by becoming a good customer to Kisangasangeni Primary School’s vegetable garden, and also by helping improve the health of the families in the village by giving them easy access to healthy organiically grown vegetables, which have no chemical additives.

The Tupendane team were so happy to be visited by Better Lives and True Adventure representatives earlier this year, who were impressed by the personal volunteering efforts at Kisangansangeni Primary School. The team explained their wish to assist schools to sustainably feed their students every school day. They are facing a few challenges which they need assistance solving, the priorities are improved protection fences and watering systems for school gardens.

Tupendane’s manager Deo believes that if these challenges are solved and the gardens expanded to include bananas, then the health of 388 children, 7 teachers, and the local community will be improved by eating healthy vegetables and bananas. Also Mama Saumu’s Kiosk business will grow so she can earn an assued income and improve her familiy’s life.