The Road to Independence

All donations and sponsorship money received through ACE go directly to Arise School. The charity also supports several older young people to continue their education at a higher level where they would not otherwise have the opportunity to do so. The young people concerned are all either orphaned and without any family support or from very impoverished family circumstances. The ability of the charity to do this is very limited as it relies totally on individuals to donate money specifically for this purpose. The eventual aim is that, through education, the young person should be able to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve independence.

We have just returned from a short trip to Dar es Salaam where there are now three young people supported through ACE. All are at very different points in their education. The purpose of the trip was to spend time with them with a view to reaching decisions about the next steps in their education and their continued support through the charity.

Firstly, Annastasia who featured in a recent blog – The Opportunity of a Lifetime! – following a trip to Chicago in April which she had the “once in a lifetime” opportunity to make whilst studying for her Sociology degree at the University of Dar es Salaam. Since returning, she has completed her final exams and is now looking forward to receiving the results in August. With her degree behind her, Annastasia is looking at options to achieve her independence. She is exploring various routes. Ideally, she would like to continue to study at Masters level and to combine this with some employment that would both allow her to support herself and maximise her chances of getting into the job market in her chosen field.

Secondly, Rita is about to resume her Diploma in Early Years Education after a three month break following the birth of her first child. Many young people in Tanzania have breaks in their education as they are not financially in a position to pay for the next year’s education. Generally, they are older by the time they complete their secondary and/or college education. In particular, it is not unusual for young women to have a child and then return to college. So far, Rita has done extremely well in her studies and, in her exams prior to her break, she achieved the highest marks in her group.

Last, but certainly not least, Catherine heard whilst we were with her in Dar that she has been accepted onto a one year Certificate in Social Work course which will start in October. This will be a big step forward for Catherine as she will then have been out of education for two years since finishing her GCSE exams. The last two years have been a very difficult time for her and we are delighted that she now has this opportunity and new hope for the future.

All three young women are at very different stages on “The Road to Independence”. We wish them good luck as they continue their journey to achieve it.

If anyone would like to enable an individual young person to continue their education, we would love to hear from you. In particular, we know that we have one young man, aged 14 years, who will be completing his primary education later this year. He is orphaned and without any family support. Without ongoing support through ACE, he will not have the opportunity to go to secondary school. He will be destined to a life in poverty. Please contact us at ACECharity@aol to donate and to help him on his road to independence.

Any donation for this purpose will go directly to support the young person The Road to Independence.

As with all our trips to Tanzania, we meet all the costs involved ourselves and there is no cost whatsoever to the charity.