Today was my first day as a volunteer here in Tanzania. I woke up at 6:45 to get showered and have some peanut butter and jam on toast (this is what happens when you live with Americans) before starting the journey to a village called Mabogini. Mabogini is quite a way outside of Moshi and so we take the public buses called dalla dallas. If you thought the underground was bad then you should try getting a dalla dalla to work. I was lucky enough to get a seat on the way there (although I had a basket of veg on my lap) but on the way home Katie, Michelle and I were quite literally hanging out of the door. Still, Michelle said we were lucky not to have any goats or chickens on board!

We arrived at the Kilimanjaro Young Girls in Need (KYGN) School to find the girls waiting in their form group lines with one of the teachers Rahab. After a rendition of the Tanzanian national anthem and the KYGN school song Michelle (who's been working at KYGN for a long while) and Katie took one of the classes and Rahab and I took the other. The girls in Rahab's class are aged 5 and 6 and we started the day with arithmetic. I helped mark the work and support those who were struggling. What struck me about the school was not only how incredibly well behaved the children are but their eagerness to learn. The school is essentially a wooden shack with nothing more than a blackboard and a few exercise books. However, the children take an immense amount of pride in their work and are thrilled with every red tick they receive.

KYGN is a school for girls in the village of Mabogini whose parents cannot afford to send them to a fee-paying school. If it was not for the KYGN school the children would, quite simply, receive no formal education at all. The school is incredibly important to the village and has over 50 pupils. It is run as cheaply and as efficiently as possible, however, KYGN is still facing a serious funding gap. Until now the charity has relied on a private sponsor to pay for the equipment and teaching staff. Unfortunately, this money has now dried up and if KYGN cannot find another source of funding then the school will have to close at Christmas. The girls will be left with no schooling and no hope of obtaining any formal qualifications. The teacher, Rahab, that I met today has been working for over three months now without a salary. She is an incredible woman who is adored by the children at the school. The idea of abandoning the children breaks her heart but she's now struggling to look after her own family.

Having visited the school today and seen what an inspiration Rahab is to the children I have realised that, in the teaching department, I am of limited use. However, where I may be able to help is by being a spokesperson for the incredible work that is going on there. Over the next three months I will try my very best to help find a sustainable future for the Kilimanjaro Young Girls in Need School but I know that, in times such as these, some things are easier said than done.

More information on the KYGN School can be found here:

http://www.kygn.org/

(I'm hoping to give this website a revamp asap so I will keep you posted. I'm also going to try and set up a JustGiving account soon but I promise not to badger you too much!)