This blog post is dedicated to the most incredible woman I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Her name is Rahabu and she is a teacher at the KYGN Centre in Mabogini. Everyday she cycles for miles to reach the school before the girls arrive at 8:30am. She teaches a class of twenty four 5 and 6 year old girls in everything from Maths and English to Art and Health. Teaching in a small wooden shack with nothing but benches and a blackboard, she works tirelessly to ensure that the girls reach their full potential despite the poverty that pervades their lives.

Most of the girls, some aged just 4 and 5, walk to and from school by themselves wearing tattered, second-hand jumpers over their school uniform. Today we gave out new socks to some of the girls to replace the frayed fishnets that theirs had become. However, it is not just a lack of wealth that the girls suffer from. Some of the girls also have to contend with the consequences of HIV/AIDS and others, we suspect, face physical and mental abuse.

It is in these dire straits that Rahabu finds herself and yet, from the academic performance of the girls you would find it difficult to believe. The children are learning English as a foreign language and, aged just 6 years old, are at the same level as an average 14 year old UK foreign language student. The mathematical ability of the students is also astounding. The 6 year old girls are able to calculate addition and subtraction in 1, 2 or 3 figures (and at speed.)

However, KYGN is not Rahabu's sole project. On leaving the school at midday she cycles to another school where she teaches all afternoon as part of a church organisation. On Saturdays she teaches a class of 54 (!) five and six year olds for no fee and on Tuesday evenings she volunteers at the Mingeni Womens' Group in Moshi...and she is a single mother. As of Monday she had not been paid by KYGN for five months and yet she continued arriving at the school, day after day, as she felt she could not abandon her girls.

On Monday, thanks to the support of all of my friends and family that have donated so far, I was able to pay Rahabu the five months salary she was owed. It was just fantastic to be able to donate to charity knowing that one hundred percent of the money was going directly to the very person who deserves it. This, of course, is a short term fix to a long term problem but I hope that in my three months here we are able to find a sustainable income for KYGN. We have found ourselves a real life superwoman in Rahabu and we cannot afford to lose her now.