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Tujatane Tales
Term 2
May - July 2006
Volume 10.2 |
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MAY 1996 – MAY
2006
Our
10th
Anniversary…
 
Wow! What a proud moment for Tujatane! A big party was held on our amphitheatre to celebrate Tujatane’s 10th anniversary on 26 April 2006. The event was a huge success and Tujatane were proud to have VIP guests attend the ceremony. Above pictured are the Honourable Minister for Southern Province and the Mayor of Livingstone. We also had the Provincial Education Officer amongst other important guests. The Honourable Minister gave a very moving speech telling everyone how overwhelmed she was at the wonderful chances offered for education at our school. She was thrilled to see the computer room, and the resources in our store room. Our children danced with drumming and singing and three children performed the poem that had won us second place nationally last year. The preschoolers sang a couple of songs. It was a day full of celebration and happiness. We were proud of our achievements and would like to thank all our supporters for providing this chance for our kids. THANKS FROM ALL THE CHILDREN.
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Sophie Visits
Sophie from Holland arrived for a visit and spent several weeks helping at our school. She focussed mainly on poetry – setting up a poetry club. Children were encouraged to write their own poems about their feelings and life around them. She then began to get the children reciting their poems. They loved their time with Sophie and wrote many emotional lines. Sophie is keen to print a book with a selection of their poems and sell it to raise money for our school. Thanks to Sophie for her determination, positive attitude and unending energy which she donated to our school.
A poem written by Everista Tembo, 11 years
 I hear people saying
Life is hard
But they don’t know what it means
I ask myself?
When will life be better?
When I remember my mother, my father, my sisters and brother
I spent an
hour crying and crying
Because my parents are not there
Who will take me to school?
Who will give me food?
Who will give me love?
I lost my parents just because of AIDS
June is near
I will be sleeping outside without a blanket
Because no one will give me one
Doctors are trying and trying to end this disease
But until now they have failed to do so.
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A music teacher for Tujatane
 With our amphitheatre complete, it was time to begin to organise our school band – but not without the help of a music teacher. Adelaide from the UK donated her holiday to come to Tujatane to set up our music and to find a teacher.
Her trip was kindly sponsored by the Sutcliffe's. Her family
and friends have also been fundraising. In just 3 weeks she organised everything and even had time to spend with the children, who had such a great time learning music with her. She found Matthew Tembo, a musician from Lusaka who is teaching twice a week to all classes and setting up a band of 10 children who are learning the keyboard, guitar, drums and marimba.
We thank The Fraser family in the UK who are sponsoring Matthew Temba.
Sibongile Sheleni writes: ‘We thank Mr Tembo for teaching us to play the keyboard and nice songs like “Malika”. He is a good music teacher.’
Phinias Mweetwa writes: ‘I felt happy when Mr Temba and Adelaide came to teach us music. They did a wonderful job.’
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New costs
for sponsorship – Kwacha revalues
We have had a year of currency challenges, with the
kwacha revaluing from:
K4800/US$ in 2005
To K2900/US$ in 2006
Due to the fact that Tujatane runs purely on
donations, we began to wonder how to survive.
We contacted many sponsors and asked for help. Thank
you to so many of you for your understanding and
extra contributions. Our sponsor a child programme
is now costing £30 a month or $58 a month ($700 a
year). This covers our basic running costs per
child.
Some sponsors have opted for duel sponsorship where
they share their child and pay half the sponsorship
contribution. Our sponsors are our lifeline and we
thank you all.
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Volunteers from the UK
It was our lucky term as we were privileged to have many volunteers join us from the UK. They achieved wonder as they set about sorting out our library (with some hidden spiders!), going through our food programme and our cleaning programme, painting fantastic colourful and educative murals on our outside walls (maps of African and of the world), teaching sign language, setting up a science club, organising poetry and drama events helping in class and generally bringing in new ideas and a buzz to our school. It was wonderful having them all, and we would like to thank them for offering so much commitment and enthusiasm to our school. We wish them all the best in their futures and hope to welcome them back some day.
Everisto Tembo in Grade 4 writes:
‘Volunteers from the UK visited us. Their names were Ruth, Awell, Beth, Clare, Peter, Laura and Amanda. They helped us learn some new things. Clare taught us sign language. Laura and Peter taught us science. Amanda and Laura taught us games. Beth painted the map of the world and Africa outside our classroom. Thank you for the job you have done. You are wonderful!’
TEACHERS AND VOLUNTEERS VISIT LIVINGSTONE ISLAND
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VOLUNTEERS AT
WORK
Amanda & Clare helping with Beth's painting
outside Grade 4.
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 To celebrate the
time spent with the volunteers Tongabezi kindly
donated a High tea on Livingstone Island for our 5
teachers and volunteers. Oliver, our G6 teacher
says: We kept on laughing had had our hands joined
(in true Tujatane style) as we went to view the
Falls to prevent from slipping. At the end the
wonderful Livingstone Island staff gave us a hot
foot bath.’ |
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 Drumming
Company visits - 150 drums!
Rob and his team from
The Drumming Company in Livingstone kindly donated their
time, expertise and drums and came out to Tujatane with 150
drums. They spent the afternoon teaching our kids
about drumming. It was so much fun for all the
children - from the pre-schoolers to the Grade 6 kids.
They each had a drum and followed Rob with the rhythm.
Thanks very much to Rob for this noisy and happy afternoon.
We hope he will visit us again! Kabeza from G6 writes:
'It was good. For me I felt as if I was in heaven.'
 
(Click to enlarge)
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Tongabezi Trust
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Oliver Mutambekwa joins the team
We welcome Oliver Mutambekwa to our school as our new Grade 6 teacher, taking over from Prester Gwenani who is now studying in Lusaka. Oliver has arrived full of energy and new ideas, so watch our news as the kids get out and about and learn with Oliver. Oliver writes,
‘I am delighted to join the Tujatane team that focuses on teaching and learning. They are a wonderful group with up-to-date teaching methods. My impression so far is the cordial relationship that exists amongst the staff. The children are keen to learn and explore things. The director is always keen to deliver with foresight and encourages staff to utilise resources at their disposal for the benefit of the child. Surely it is the duty of the staff to develop the individuality of these souls and add value to them. It is a matter of being enthusiastic in what we do and have a good mind set. Let’s increase productivity by making our classes with materials that will inspire children.’
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We had sports day –
which was great fun. The children and teachers all raced, and it was Zambezi verses Kafue. Kafue were the winners. Thanks to Tongabezi for yet another sports day lunch.
 COMPUTERS DONATED.
We had an amazing donation of six second hand computers from Lingfield School in Surrey, fully loaded with educational software – they are fantastic. Thanks to the British Council for their help with transport.
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FRENCH CLASSES AT TUJATANE
We have been very lucky to have funding from the UK for 2005 and part of 2006 to cover Eric, our French teacher who comes to teach every Wednesday. The children who come from different language backgrounds (there are 74 different languages in Zambia) are very skilled in language learning and love French. One of our pupils in preschool writes:
Je m’appelle Antoinette Zulu.
J’ai cinq ans.
Je suis en premiere annee a Tongabezi Trust School.
J’aime apprendre le francais avec Tonton Eric.
Maman s’appelle Juliette. Papa s’appelle Gabriel. Merci.
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OUR CLASSES
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NO. & AGES |
 US SUPPORTERS can send their
contributions through Cogitare Foundation, in New York.
www.cogitarefoundation.org. They are a tax exempt
foundation which allows your total contribution to be sent through
to Tujatane, avoiding any charges. |
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Preschool & Reception
Grade 1
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 6 |
44 children, 3-7 years
21 children, 6-8 years
20 children, 7-10 years
24 children, 9-13 years
22 children, 11-17 years |
Please note: Barclays Bank
charges us $US30 to process each cheque we receive. To avoid
this and ensure that your entire donation benefits the children,
please send any donations by bank transfer to the school account or
direct to the UK school charity. If you wish to make a
contribution, please contact
vanessa@tongabezi.com
for details. Many thanks for your help.
UK Charity Status "The
Charitable Trust for The Tongabezi Trust School"
Registration number 1096710. Email:
jessopprice@hotmail.co.uk.
Click here
for details on making a donation through the UK charity.
US Charity Donations
"The Cogitare Foundation"
Comments/feedback welcomed.
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Tongabezi Trust
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