Gertrude teaches 54 children in her classroom each morning. These are some of the children of Kilidu. They are aged from 4-10 years and have no other opportunity to go to school. The classroom was built thanks to a donation from Leeds businessman, Charles Watkinson and his company, Corrocoat.

Each day Gertrude, trained in the Montessori College in Mtwara, teaches her class reading, writing and helps to explore the world of learning through interactive and tactile teaching methods.

So successful is she that parents from Kitere - five miles away, where there is already a government primary school - have asked if their children can attend the Kilidu kindergarten. The villagers see now the value of education as their children will be the first generation from this village to be learning to read and write. As popular as it is, the class still needs woven mats, reading booklets, small desks and chairs and lots of other items of everyday teaching and learning materials.

Comment

Move around Mtwara's main streets - the market, the main road past the Regional Commissioner's residence, the new coast road past the Makonde Beach Club and towards the Holy Redeemer Sisters, or drive towards Mikindani on the main road north towards Dar - you won't wait long before a large Landcruiser with red number plates speeds past you. The red number plates mean that the car is registered to a government department or an NGO. It also almost certainly means that it was bought and paid for with international aid money. It's true that experts from the developed world helping Tanzania in its development can't move around the more remote areas without 4 x 4s.

And those donors would rightly be criticised if they never left Dar or Dodoma. It's just that a cynic will point out that for all the aid money going in, all the experts offering advice and all the 4 x 4s tearing up dust, life for eighty per cent of the Tanzanian population is as precarious as ever. It's true that girls' access to education is improving, deaths from malaria are falling and international investment (principally from China) is increasing. But, infant mortality remains high; access to good healthcare, clean water and quality education scarce.

Tanzania is still one of the twenty poorest countries in the world, with nearly eighty per cent of its population existing on less than &2 a day. When we started Mtwaralinks, we wanted to stick to a very simple principle: we give the money directly to those who need it. In recent years we've compromised a little, in that we now give it principally to Sisters who in turn give it to or spend it on those who need it. But we know where every penny is spent and none of it to date has gone on Landcruisers.





Rose is a young woman of nineteen. She was raised by her mum alone, after her dad left. Today her mum struggles to feed Rose's younger siblings and, having completed secondary school, Rose has now been offered a place on the Diploma in Education course at the Montessori Teachers' Training College in Mtwara. It is an excellent college with small class sizes and well qualified teaching staff.

Were Rose to be able to take up this place she would live in dormitory accommodation and take all her meals at the college. College arranges for her to undertake teaching practice and helps her find work on completion of the course. The cost of the course including food and accommodation, uniform, stationery and all necessary materials and equipment is approximately £645 per year.

If you think you can help support Rose through this three year course please get in touch.

Micro-loans

Johnson is a small, wiry man of thirty-five. He was born in Masasi and was never able to take his education beyond primary school. He got a job with the Sisters just over eight years ago. Married to Veronica and father to young Grace, Johnson borrowed TSH600,000 (£200) to buy a plot of land on the outskirts of Mtwara. He then borrowed a further TSH2m and managed to build a sizeable house. He has repaid every shilling he borrowed and now hopes to build a more substantial house from cement blocks. The Sisters have made a number of such micro-loans to those who are known and trusted, but who have no other recourse to credit. Such loans can transform people's lives, lifting families out of poverty and giving them opportunities usually denied to those without education or money. If you want to help, mark your Standing Order, ‘Johnson'.

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