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GIVING HOPE THROUGH EDUCATION
Blake continue in our mission of “Giving Hope Through Education”, as we donate a further 120 SchoolBags to impoverished children in Tanzania, East Africa…
Here at Blake, we are committed to helping others. With millions of children throughout the world who have no access to a good education, we are proud to share our latest achievement: how we worked alongside the School in a Bag charity to provide youngsters from the deprived Iringa region of Tanzania with all the educational resources required for them to learn, ultimately presenting them with what could be their passport out of a life of hardship and poverty.
RELIEVING POVERTY IN TANZANIA
When planning our SchoolBag donation in Tanzania, it was very important to us that this would have the biggest impact possible, and that the SchoolBags we funded would be distributed in the areas where the children were in the greatest need.
After looking into this further with the guidance of our friends at School in a Bag and their established IRUDI partners within the country, Blake made the decision to support a group of young children between the ages of 7 and 14 from the two rural primary schools of Malagosi and Lyamgungwe, two small remote villages situated some 45-55km from the main Iringa town in the Iringa region of Tanzania.
With the majority of the population in these areas engaged with peasant farming, there is such extreme poverty that some families cannot even afford to buy their young ones a pen or pencil: the most basic of learning equipment required for them to learn.
Tragically, many of these children have also lost either one or both of their parents to the terrible HIV pandemic. They are therefore putting up with extremely difficult living conditions and heavy responsibilities such as caring for younger siblings or their remaining parent, many of whom are very weak and ill and require close care and assistance.
They were in desperate need of our help, and we at Blake were thrilled, once more, to be “Giving Hope Through Education”.
PARTNERING WITH IRUDI
To enable us to fulfil our aim of donating 120 SchoolBags to these needy children, Blake and School in a Bag worked alongside with IRUDI (The Iringa Rural Development Initiative), which is a non-governmental organization local to the Iringa region of Tanzania which is committed to improving the lives of those in the villages of the wider Iringa community.
With the large majority of Iringa residents having to travel many miles daily to fetch water or receive an education, this fantastic group work closely with volunteers from all over the world, undertaking projects such as supplying clean water, building schools and providing education to the remote surrounding villages that would otherwise be almost completely isolated.
Learn more about IRUDI here.
Blake had the pleasure of working closely with the President of the organisation, Willhard Mgbolea, who played a vital role in helping us deliver our 120 SchoolBags into the hands of the young children at the Lyamgungwe and Malagosi primary schools.
DISTRIBUTING 120 SCHOOLBAGS
On 10th October 2019, we were finally able to turn this dream into a reality, when the IRUDI team travelled to our two chosen schools and handed out our SchoolBags to each of the 120 children there. It was wonderful to hear of the excitement of the children as they received their new learning resources, from Willhard, who witnessed this first hand:
“The children were so excited to have the bags as always. Please pass on our thanks to everyone at Blake for funding these 120 SchoolBags in Tanzania. We are all so grateful!”
As always, supplying these children with the learning equipment they had been so desperately seeking has been a truly heart-warming experience, and it was incredible to see their enthusiasm and joy in the photos and videos we received from our partners at IRUDI.
For the team at Blake, it’s so special to know that this donation is the beginning of something that could transform their lives forever!
Below, we have shared just some of the footage of the children with their new SchoolBags in a short yet touching video, where they can be heard saying,
“Asanta sana Blake” (Thank you very much Blake)
.
We also received the touching message of appreciation shown below from Luke Simon, Founder and CEO of our partner charity School in a Bag:
“We are delighted with the fantastic contribution that Blake have made this autumn, funding SchoolBags in Africa with our established School in a Bag partners in Tanzania. The need in this country is colossal and we are extremely grateful that through our ongoing partnership with Blake, we have been able to provide more needy children with vital SchoolBags to help transform their learning capabilities. Thank you Blake.”
We look forward to continuing to do our bit to help the thousands of poor, orphan, vulnerable and disaster affected children that exist across the globe. Stay posted!
