What Hope Looks Like at Mshiri Primary School

A year of partnership with the Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation, progress and children learning in spaces that once desperately needed help

There is something very different about seeing a project finished when you know what the space looked like before.

Our work at Mshiri Primary School has never been about coming into a community and deciding what we think people need. It has been about listening to the school, the teachers and the families we serve, understanding the challenges they are facing, and then finding people willing to come alongside us to help.

Over the past year, that has resulted in some incredible changes at Mshiri Primary School.

One of the biggest transformations has been the Standard 7 classroom. Before the renovation, the classroom was unusable. Black mold affected the walls and roof, the foundation was cracking, there was no electrical wiring, and the windows did not have glass. This wasn't a classroom that simply needed fresh paint. It needed significant work before children could safely learn there again.

Today, that same room is full of students.

The walls and ceiling are finished. The windows have glass. The electrical work has been completed. Students are sitting at new desks while their teacher stands at the blackboard teaching.

For me, those pictures tell the story better than I ever could.

Standard 7 Classroom before renovations

Standard 7 Classroom before renovations

Standard 7 Classroom before renovations

Beginning renovations with our volunteers from Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation & Dealers of Hope USA

During renovations

Students in their new classroom with their new desks!

The school kitchen has also undergone a major transformation. The original cooking space was dark and heavily affected by years of smoke from preparing meals. Today, it is a clean, finished space with improved cooking equipment that supports something incredibly important to us: making sure children have food during their school day. This was done by the villagers over the last year and our funds raised through our website.

The kitchen before renovation. Only one meal of porridge was cooked per day over a fire pit in one big pot.

The renovated kitchen now with gas cooking stoves for two meals to be cooked per day for the kids

But the progress at Mshiri is much bigger than two renovated spaces.

Through the partnership between Dealers of Hope Foundation and Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation, children have received tracksuits and two school uniforms each, along with school supplies and sports equipment. The school received new desks for students and teachers, a printer and copy machine, and a computer for the headmaster.

Forty-one children who needed help with their school fees received scholarships for the year. We have also been able to fund breakfast and lunch for the children at school each day.

Each of these things might look like a separate project on paper, but at the school they are all connected. A safe classroom matters. Having a desk matters. Having the supplies needed to learn matters. Being able to attend school because your fees have been paid matters. And trying to learn while hungry is very different from learning after you've eaten.

That is why our work at Mshiri continues to grow beyond fixing one building or meeting one need.

Climb for Hope

This work has also helped shape what Climb for Hope is becoming.

Each September, Dealers of Hope Foundation Tanzania will bring nonprofit partners and supporters from the United States to Tanzania through Climb for Hope. Kilimanjaro is part of the experience, but the purpose is much bigger than reaching the summit. We want people to experience Tanzania, connect with the communities we serve and become part of work that continues long after everyone goes home.

Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation has been an important partner in what has happened at Mshiri Primary School. We are incredibly grateful for the people who have trusted us, raised money, traveled across the world and helped turn needs we could see every day into changes the children can now experience every day.

There Is Still More to Do

Our next major concern is the school's roof.

The existing roof is deteriorating and leaking, including into areas that we have already worked hard to renovate. At this point, replacing the roof isn't simply another improvement we would like to make. It is about protecting the work that has already been done before water causes more damage.

The current contractor estimate for the complete roof renovation and new iron-sheet roofing is $14,200.

The roof over Standard 7 classroom.

There will always be another need, but I think it is important to stop sometimes and look at what has already happened.

A classroom children couldn't use is now full of students learning. A kitchen that desperately needed attention has been transformed. Children are eating breakfast and lunch at school. Students who needed help staying in school have their fees covered. They have uniforms, supplies, desks and equipment they didn't have before.

There is more to do at Mshiri Primary School.

But this is what progress looks like.

And this is what can happen when people decide to become part of it.

Help Us Continue the Work

Dealers of Hope Foundation Tanzania is a registered charitable organization in Tanzania, and donations made directly to us support the charitable work we are doing here in Tanzania.

For our supporters in the United States, we also work alongside our sister organization, Dealers of Hope USA, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

If you are a U.S. donor seeking a charitable contribution receipt for U.S. tax purposes, please donate through Dealers of Hope USA. If you do not need a U.S. charitable contribution receipt, you may donate directly to Dealers of Hope Foundation Tanzania.

However you choose to support the work, thank you for helping us continue building something that the children, teachers and families at Mshiri can experience every day.

For more information about U.S. charitable contribution deductions, please review the IRS guidance on charitable contribution deductions.

See More From Mshiri Primary School

We have shared only a small part of the transformation above. Take a look through more photos from the school, the renovations, the children and the work made possible through this partnership.