What a wonderful team of volunteers we have this year. They were absolutely instrumental in preparing three rooms at three primary schools as libraries for the children.
We purchased textbooks, gathered donations of story books, and hired a local carpenter to build shelving and tables. Our volunteers, in three teams, went to each school to paint the inside and outside walls of the rooms to create clean and bright spaces for these libraries.
Kilaremo Primary School is located downhill from our location about a 25 minutes hike away. Kiunguni/Komalyangoe Primary School is about a 30 minute uphill hike. Komela Primary School is about a 45 minute uphill hike. The weather was HOT, the roads dusty and rough but our volunteers hiked every day to their sites and did a magnificent job on these rooms. They were also very creative in creating long roller poles from bamboo and duct tape, and paint trays (not to be found in Tanzania) out of cardboard boxes lined with plastic.
The teachers and students were very grateful and often came to spend time with the volunteers, sometimes even pitching in to help. Our goal of improving the educational climate in schools is greatly expanded with the addition of these library learning environments.
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