Hi!
I’m Lily, a Social Media and Marketing intern at Art in Tanzania!
WEB Page Development and Social MediaChildren Under School Age
I accompanied one of my fellow interns, Michiel – a volunteer from Holland, to the Glory of Africa Orphanage, about 30 minutes from the Dar es Salaam compound. As part of his project, Michiel is teaching English to children from 4 to 14 years old, and I was able to document what happens on a typical day.
First things first, let me give you a bit of an insight into what the Glory of Africa Orphanage is all about. Founded in 2012, Glory of Africa currently houses 8 children, with many more in the neighbourhood coming daily for education and food, made available through donations. Art in Tanzania’s interns and volunteers have been working with Glory of Africa since 2013 by creating different projects for support. ‘The Glory Water Pipeline’ is an example of a clean water and sanitation project created in 2013 whereby volunteers raised money and donated a water tank to the orphanage. A classroom within the compound has a blackboard, chalk, rows of desks and a cupboard filled with pencils and paper. All this is to ensure that the children have equipment for the lessons and provide a classroom environment.
Michiel usually visits the orphanage in the afternoon, around 4 pm, after the children have finished their daily school routines. Therefore, lessons are a sort of after-school activity for the children, typically lasting between one and two hours. In previous weeks, the children have been learning the basics of English, with one particular lesson focusing on various animals and translating these animals from Kiswahili into English. By the end of the lesson, the children could successfully communicate in English their favourite animal and why! I accompanied Michiel on his fourth visit to the orphanage. The lesson began with a recap of the previous day’s teachings, which focused on verbs, and then proceeded to cover various grammatical terms. This lesson focused on nouns and identifying them within a sentence. Other sentences were written in English on the blackboard, and the children were asked to come to the front and underline the noun in each sentence, correctly identifying it. From starting with simple English words to teaching various grammatical terms, their knowledge and understanding of English are impressive. As Michiel moves on to teaching more advanced topics, such as Human Rights, to some of the older children, their progress is notable
It was time for some games with everything learned, and the lesson was over! Football seems to be a loved sport in Tanzania, and the orphanage was no different…
Two footballs were given to the children, and they joined my Michiel. They rushed out the door to kick about outside. The orphanage has a big open space where the children can play and run about between and after lessons. Everyone got involved in the game, and the children looked delighted and energetic; it was an excellent chance for them to get out and be active after learning. We stayed for around an hour and a half after the lesson, playing and chatting with the children, which was a great way to learn more about them outside of the classroom.
Volunteering to teach English is a fantastic opportunity, and what better way than to volunteer with Art in Tanzania and support local organisations, such as the Glory of Africa Orphanage? With their desire to learn, teaching and getting to know these children seems incredibly rewarding; playing games with them is a bonus as well!
If you would like to participate in a project like this or explore other volunteering opportunities, please visit our website for more details.
