Ihemi Primary School in Tanzania

We have established a link with Ihemi Primary School in Tanzania.

Originally the link was created with the help of St. Joan of Arc’s, ArcAid Committee. Our link is maintained through the Walser Tanzania Charity. The Walsers were former parishioners of St. Joan of Arc and pupils of St. Polycarp’s.

Their charity’s main objectives are to: support children so that they can attend school and college, improve facilities and resources in local schools and provide funding for projects to improve the lives of those in the Ifunda community.

The children raise money to sponsor annually the education and well - being of two children. The first is Edina Mvela, a 15 year old girl who has now progressed from Ihemi Primary onto secondary school. The second is Amrike Nyalusi, a 13 year old boy who is currently at Ihemi Primary School.

The children regularly correspond with Amrike sending letters and pictures. The next project is to make a video of life at our school to send with our charity partners.

We recently held our One World Mufti Day where the children brought in £2 to dress in the colours of the Tanzanian flag. In addition to this they were asked to donate one of their toys (no larger than the size of their palm) to be taken by the Walsers to Ihemi on their next trip.

In addition to this, over the years the children have provided: shoes, spectacles, sports clothes, sporting equipment, educational resources and wind up solar lamps. They have also helped fund toilets for the school and a computer centre for the older children of the area.

Once a year representatives from the charity visit our school and hold an assembly updating the children on the work being done at the school and in the local area to support the families.

Former St. Polycarp’s pupils, are still raising money for Ihemi School, having been at secondary school for many years. Some of our past students hope to visit the school in the future during gap years.

Projects

The children have said prayers and held events to raise funds to:

• help St. Joan’s Youth Group, former pupils, go to World Youth Days in both Brazil and Poland. The former students then come in and talk to our children about their experience, bringing artefacts and showing photos to show.
• help the street children in Brazil where former pupils spent a week helping a charity in Brazil
• help past students at All Hallows School go to Lourdes on Pilgrimages.
  provide SolarPower at The Good Shepherd’s Convent in Mankulam, Sri Lanka
• help UNICEF
• help people effected by the Nepalese Earthquake
• help families effected by famine in East Africa

The children also organise collections of items such as:

• shoes for Karibu Nyumbani orphanage for former pupils to take out who spent a month volunteering at the orphanage
• books for Nyaagi Primary School , Nairobi, Kenya for another former pupil to take out when again volunteering
• spectacles for the people of Ifunda, Tanzania
• solar lamps for the families of the children at the Ihemi school