Before school
“I am Petro. I am the fourth of six siblings from Manyara in Tanzania. My parents are poor farmers, so the main difficulty is always how to get money to provide for our needs, especially our daily food. In Manyara, the rainy season is only very short, and my parents use only the small piece of land around our house to plant and cultivate corn.
This also affected my studies very much, because at the school village where I studied, we had to contribute 80 kg of corn and 40 kg of beans. This is what the teachers required as our yearly contribution on food so that we can eat at the school. As my parents are poor and cannot contribute even corn or beans, many times I endured hunger at school as only those who contributed were allowed to eat.
Surviving malaria
When I was ten I got very sick. I was suffering from malaria, but my parents could not do anything until our neighbours contributed money for our transportation to go to the hospital and to buy medicine for me. I thought I would die. My father had to borrow money for my hospitalization. My father had to work on other peoples’ farms so that he could get the money to pay back.”
At school
“Now, my life has totally changed when I arrived in the Sisters of Mary Boystown. I am receiving a very high-quality education, and I am living in a very good condition. I want to say thank you to all the Sisters and to the donors for providing for me all these things I have now.
I will study hard because my ambition in my future life is that I want to change also the life of my family. I will work hard to make their life good and not to experience anymore same difficulties because of lack of food and also because of sickness. Thank you very much.”
– Petro
Since joining the school at Dodoma, Petro has joined the St. Peter Family. The Family groups at school are vital to the children as they provide the support they need to thrive. Find out more about how families at school work buy clicking the button below.