On behalf of all of us at Majengo, thank you so much for your contributions in this challenging time. We continue to run our CHEK and CHEK+ Food Program throughout the community surrounding Majengo in an effort to educate and provide necessities to vulnerable children and families.

As the coronavirus rages on, there is growing concern over children returning to school – which will be a much more difficult transition in developing countries.

It is estimated that when schools eventually reopen, tens of millions of children globally, especially in the world’s poorest places, will never go back to school due to economic pressures, family pressures, and cost. Additionally, children out of school are at risk for not receiving their most basic needs. Girls will be the most affected – and are at an additional risk of exploitation.

While this will not be the case for the children living at Majengo Children’s Home – who are continuing their studies at the direction of our MCH staff – this is a big concern for the children enrolled in our community programs who have been out of school since March 17^th, with no end in sight. Currently, we have 90 children ranging in age from 3 to 18 enrolled in these programs.

Since most children in the Majengo community do not have access to a computer or online education – nor do they have televisions to take advantage of the government of Tanzania’s televised learning – we have developed the STAY HOME STUDY PROGRAM!

This program provides:

– Age-appropriate work books with activities and exercises to each student
– Pencils and erasers
– A check-in from an MCH staff member (with a handwashing technique review!)

We hope to provide these packages monthly to keep children busier and engaged, and also allow parents and guardians some time to maintain the household. So far, we have distributed 40 to each of the Majengo pre-school students. Over the next week, we are aiming to distribute another 50 to the primary and secondary school students already enrolled in our programming who live in the community. However, we know that there are hundreds more children within the community who could use this support.

If we are able to acquire $1,015 in funding, we can provide these resources to a total of 290 students in the community for one month. Our aim is to secure enough funding to continue the program through August (4 months total). Each kit costs $3.50 per month.

(Salim, Kassim and Magreth received their STAY HOME STUDY PACKS over the weekend!)

This program will help keep students engaged and busy, which we hope will help mitigate some of the effects being out of school will have on the children of the Majengo community. We also hope that the provision of these resources will give parents and guardians more time during the day to maintain the households, and work if possible.