Lillian

This is Lilian Said aka Lily Wawa.

We first met Lilian at Manyata Primary School where we were conducting an environmental project - which actually led to school building refurbishment. But that is another story.

The dirt track into Manyata is on red soils and when it rains, it is like walking or driving on ice. Suffice it to say that access is a problem there.

The connotations are often wrong when when mentioning poverty. The people of Manyata are subsistence farmers who have few resources and struggle through life as best they can. Certainly they don't have too many coins to rub together.

Lilian and her siblings live with their mother who grows rice and sometimes has a surplus to sell. She works when there is available work but demonstrates her community spirit by serving on the school committee.

Within the school environment project we noticed that Lilian was interested in trees and she became chairperson of the Environmental Committee we helped set up. She took charge of the small tree nursery (as pictured above) carefully tending the young trees and instructing her fellows as they came to assist.

In this pic Lilian is standing third from right after receiving her prize for one of the ten best trees grown in the season.

She liked to participate in the roll plays that were part of our environmental seminar and she sang the lead at the time I was honoured with a Risala - sung by a group to formally thank us for the help we had given the school.

It was obvious to us that Lilian was a very bright child and we knew she would pass her Standard Seven national Examination.

Standard seven is the final year at primary school and at that time (and things are now much different) only 6% of pupils were able to go on to secondary school. Although many passed, their parent were unable to afford the state school fees. There was a deal of corruption involved where passed were stolen or sold. There was an option that if a family could afford private (and that included church) schools, then students could attend there by passing an entrance exam and even if they failed the national one. As time went on, even those passing the national exam could not go to a state school because there simply were not enough spaces. Again I state that the situation is now much improved!

We decided that should Lilian pass the national exam, and we thought she would, then we would help her through secondary school. Sure enough, one day Lilian appeared at our doorway to tell us she had passed her exams and had been offered a place at Maji ya Chai Secondary School. We knew this school well because Loti was the School Committee Chairman there. It was a new school and the committee/teachers were working hard. Fees for state schools were reasonably modest and we were please to help Lilian and her family.

The school principal - a very fine principal indeed - often thanked us for sponsoring Lilian and he assured us she was a top student. I fact she was top of her form and was fiercely competitive not allowing anyone to approach her.

We had told her we would support only until she had passed her O levels at the end of Form IV but her result was so good and her principal encouraged us to sponsor her to Form VI and her A levels.

Of course she passed those exams with flying colours and began talking 'University Study'.

The daughter of NZ friends was visiting us at Makumira and she met Lilian, became inspired and offered sponsorship. So Lilian went off to university in Morogoro.

Our friend's daughter took on some volunteer work and was unable to continue with the sponsorship, which is entirely fair. She made it clear to Lilian that her sponsorship was limited.

Lilian came back to us for assistance. A friend tried to find sponsorship for her through his church but was only able to raise a modest amount. My brother came to the party for this year, so Lilian starts back at her second year at the start of August.

This is part of the reason for this blog and why there are advertisements. I'm hoping that enough revenue will eventuate to pay Lilian's fees for her last year's study. the cost is just over Tsh 800 000/- which equates to under USD 1 000.00 though in reality, it is a hard ask to live on the bare minimum in a place like Morogoro where commodities have to be trucked in and water sometimes paid for!

Lilian is studying the Environment, and Wildlife which will, on passing, give her automatic right for a job in the Wildlife Service. This would be a fabulous outcome and I can imagine one very proud Tanzanian mother attending the graduation ceremony.

Manyata School plantings after the first season