August 2024
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Arusha. I am writing to thank you for your generous gifts sent in May for Emusoi. They will help us to pay the school fees for second term and to buy dried corn and beans for the food supply of the rest of 2024 and half of 2025. Thank you so much!
We have been very busy for the past 2 months as schools closed for June holidays and students passed through Emusoi on their way home. The Form 6 students finished their courses, took their national exams and began the wait for their exam results. Meanwhile, 8 of the students who finished Form 4 last year were selected to join advanced level studies and we prepared them with the needed supplies, mattresses, bedding, cleaning supplies, uniforms, school supplies, etc. and sent them off to all corners of Tanzania to begin their studies.
In the early part of July, the results of the Form 6 national exams were announced and our girls did very well. No one failed and no one received a division 4! Twenty-eight girls out of 29 qualified for university and now they are applying to universities and applying for student loans. I want to tell you about Selina who had the best results of all our students.
Selina is a Barbaig girl. The Barbaig are another pastoralist community helped by Emusoi Centre, along with the Maasai. They are a much smaller group than the Maasai. Many of their customs with regard to the education of girls are quite similar to the Maasai where girls are married off at an early age and many girls are not educated at all.
Selina’s father had two wives and her mother is the second wife. Her father died in 2010. Selina’s mother and the first wife now live together with all their children (12). Selina is the 5th of 8 children and the other wife has 4 children. A number of the children have never gone to even primary school. Selina has an older sister who went to government secondary school, who was sponsored by Emusoi. The family is very poor, with the two women caring for a few goats and chickens.
When Selina was in secondary school, some of our staff went to visit Selina’s home village. On their way there, they met her brother going to the market. He had been sent by her mother to sell 2 eggs so she could buy some tea leaves and sugar to prepare tea for the guests. Our staff bought the eggs themselves and told him not to tell his mother!
Selina is a very intelligent girl. She held first place during her year in the Emusoi pre-secondary program. She is a serious, determined student. She was accepted in Kibosho Girls Secondary School. This school has a very high standard and only accepts the best students. Many of the students in Kibosho have graduated from English medium primary school and therefore find it easy to move into English medium secondary schools. Most of our students have attended the Swahili medium primary schools in remote villages, so they move into private secondary schools with a marked disadvantage. Selina attended a village Swahili medium primary school, but she managed to be the first in her class in Kibosho for both terms of Form I (out of 140 students). In all my years at Emusoi, she is only the second student out of almost 2000 to score so well.
Selina finished Form 4 with a division one pass and even scored “A” in math! I think she is the only Emusoi students who scored such in math in all my years here at Emusoi. Selina was selected to join a school across the country for advanced level studies. She took physics, chemistry and pure math as her subjects. She passed with Division one and now is applying to university to become an engineer! Her choices are computer engineering, telecommunications engineering and industrial engineering. I hope she achieves her dreams.
Without Emusoi and your help, she would not have had a chance to go to school. Her talents and skills would have been lost. I thank you and she thanks you for the help. Your generosity gives us the means to help these young women and their families and in turn the whole nation of Tanzania. What a wonderful way to bring about positive change in the world!
You are in our prayers every day. May God bless you.
Sincerely,
Sr. Mary
Note: All donations should be sent via Maryknoll Sisters, Box 311, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0311. Checks need to be issued in the name of “Maryknoll Sisters”, with “Emusoi Center” written on the memo line. Please include a note designating the gift for Emusoi Center, Arusha, Tanzania. You will receive an acknowledgement from Maryknoll which can be used for tax purposes. I will also send you a thank you from here. If you do not hear from me, let me know about your donation. It will take 2 months or so for me to get news of your donation. You can also contribute electronically; use this link: https://www.maryknollsisters.org/support-us/donate-now/ Write “Emusoi Center/Sr. Mary Vertucci” in comment/intention field. If any of you would like to receive this newsletter by email, just write me at emusoicenter@gmail.com and let me know. Thank you.