Back in Tanzania, with new friends and old!

Hello friends,

We hope you are enjoying the beginning of the autumn! This time of the year in Tanzania, our third-year students are studying hard for their national examinations and getting ready for graduation. We currently sponsor 32 students at four schools. Eleven of these will be graduating this fall, bringing the total number of graduates to 153!

We continue to see more and more of our graduates seeking higher education. Our first two students, Chiku and Jacqueline, have just completed their BSN program. Tegemea, a 2011 graduate, has just completed the first year of a PhD program at the University of Massachusetts. She had an exceptionally good year and is looking forward to the challenges of her second year.

In June Wendy, a dearly loved young friend named Hannah and I visited Tanzania. We visited several schools and enjoyed some great times with our students.

Below Hannah has given a brief account of her experience in Tanzania:

My name is Hannah Ingersoll. I am 16 years old and will be entering my senior year in high school this fall. I was introduced to the Tanzania Nursing Scholarship Program (TNSP) when my mother designed the organization’s logo. I have been interested in medicine for some time and hope to become a doctor someday, so when I was invited me to travel with Linda and Wendy I was thrilled!
 
The first day in Tanzania, we went to a small clinic in the Rombo District, which is approximately 1½ hours away from Moshi. Once there, we visited Royce, a TNSP graduate. She was very kind and welcomed us with gifts of bright colored bags made out of kitenge material.
 
After visiting Royce, we traveled to Karatu (about a 5-hour drive from Moshi) and met another TNSP graduate, Pascalina who took us on a tour of FAME Clinic where she is the supervisor of the outpatient facility. FAME Clinic was founded in 2002 by Dr. Frank Artress, a physician from the United States. The facility offers advanced patient care, utilizing an X-ray machine and a CT scanner—one of only a few in the country. I was very impressed and felt hopeful to see such a facility in rural Tanzania.
 
The next day we went on Safari to the Ngorongoro Crater and brought Pascalina with us. The crater is the world’s largest caldera and has an extremely dense wildlife life concentration. We saw many different animals including elephants, zebras, wildebeest, caracals, guinea fowl, warthogs, hyenas, hippos, lions, a leopard, flamingos and water buffalo. It was truly amazing to see the different types of beautiful wildlife living in their natural habitat and wonderful to see the pride and respect the Tanzanian people have for them.
 
We left for Dodoma where we met recent TNSP graduate Kissa Kilembe and stayed at Cana Lodge with her. In 2018 Kissa graduated from Tukuyu School of Nursing’s three-year diploma program with a perfect 5.0 GPA and will now be going on to get her Bachelor’s degree. Kissa stayed with us the week we were in Dodoma. Linda, Wendy and I were very grateful for her translation skills!
 
In the next evening we visited the home of TNSP graduate Elizabeth. She and her family were very nice they served us delicious smoothies and Mandazi. Elizabeth will also be going to get her Bachelor’s Degree soon, also.

A couple of days later we traveled to Mvumi Mission/Institute of Health Sciences to visit the sponsored students there.

When we arrived we were greeted by Angela Savage, who teaches at Mvumi and initiated their connection with the TNSP. The next evening we had dinner with the students at the house we were staying in. Angela brought her guitar and accompanied the students as they sang for us.

I really loved my experience in Tanzania the people are so friendly and kind. It was very interesting talking to the former and current sponsored students and it’s amazing what the TNSP does for them. I’m so grateful to Linda and Wendy for taking me to Tanzania I enjoyed it so much and I will never forget it.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a few words of gratitude from a student sponsored by TNSP:

“Thank you for your financial support toward my academic progress. I needed help and you never failed me. Such people like you are very rare. I really appreciate and respect all efforts you have made in helping and supporting my goals. Not easy to find assistance especially with financial concerns. I will never forget goodness of your heart. Your help and kindness will forever be remembered and respected.”

Asanti sana (thank you) to all of you who have supported and encouraged us along this journey.

Linda van Werkhooven
President, Tanzania Nursing Scholarship Program

Please note: as always, all travel costs are paid by the individual board members