Bega Kwa Bega is deeply grateful to Russ Hilliard and Jo Whiting who are serving in the Iringa Office.
Habari from Iringa, Tanzania! Russ and I have been here since June 26, re-learning the BKB coordinator ropes after eight years since we last managed the office as volunteers. A lot is much the same, but a lot has changed: online banking (no more carrying backpacks full of cash to and from the banks); more forms (for more consistent organization); and more dependable electrical power and internet (whew!). After several years as ambassadors, visiting parishes on behalf of their American partners, we have enjoyed and been challenged to be back in the office working with the nuts and bolts of what keeps the BKB companionship relationship running so effectively.
We did get out of the office and town a bit, however. We spent Tuesday through Friday, July 23-26, visiting the six secondary schools operated by the Iringa Diocese (DIRA): Ipalamwa, Bomalang’ombe, Mtera, Image, Pommern and Lutangilo. Each school is an hour or two drive, some over mountainous, very rough, and gorgeous terrain. Our BKB team included Pastor Msigwa, BKB coordinator for DIRA; Frank Mkocha, DIRA scholarship clerk; and Russ and me. Pastors from the Huruma Center rode along each day to visit with the students who attend from there.
These visits are always a big deal. The school students show off their singing, drumming and dancing skills and the staff show off their classrooms and labs. The purpose of the visits, though, is for the BKB team to check on the sponsored students—that each one for whom payment is made is really there and that there are not “extra” students there by some mistake. (There are always a few “extras,” usually because parishes have not updated their student list provided to the schools.) Then we take a picture of each parish’s sponsored students so the sponsoring congregation can have their smiling (mostly) faces in mind. Student photo albums will be available soon.
Upon completion of all the visits, Frank and we made a new updated list of sponsored students, by school, along with the amounts of the second payments for each—and then we made deposits of the total second payments to each school. Even with reliable internet, QuickBooks and Frank’s facility with spreadsheets, this whole process (done each January and July) is a significant undertaking.
These are the processes and checks and balances of the BKB scholarship project. More important than all that, though, is the question of “Does it work?” The answer is a resounding “YES!” DIRA was informed just as we were starting our school visits that every student who had taken the Form VI exams this year had passed! (These are the exams that are required to go on to university.) Moreover, two of the students (both at Mtera), who are vision impaired, had scored in the top level of passing students in the country! All of these students will be challenged to find ways to pay for their further education if they decide to go on, but each has the excellent secondary school education and exam scores to do so. Even more reason for singing and dancing!
With gratitude,
Jo Whiting and Russ Hilliard
