Donations for Education in Ngaramtoni

We are always grateful to received donations through the Foundation and there are so many small improvements which make a massive difference to the quality of education. We recently received a donation from a previous volunteer, Tore Kristensen, to be used in Ngaramtoni schools.

We decided to spend the money at Timbolo Primary where our volunteer Andre Le Gouais had identified a massive shortage of English textbooks for Standard 3 and Standard 4. For Standard 3 there were only 5 textbooks to be shared between a whole class. With Tore’s money we were able to buy enough books for pupils to share 1 between 2 in both classes, something that has already started making a big difference.

The other issue at Timbolo, that our previous volunteer Anne Davis told us about was the state of the blackboards. Some of them were so poor that it was hard for teachers to write on them and the children couldn’t read what was there. Tore’s money has paid for 5 blackboards to be repainted which will hopefully make life easier for both pupils and teachers.

Ngaramtoni Football Tournament

May 30th 2008

During 2007, one of our supporters, Clive Berrington, did a fantastic job and raised more than £1000 to enable us to organise a football tournament in Ngaramtoni. Sport is a great way to help children develop team-working skills, as well as promoting creativity and physical fitness. Needless to say, the boys in Ngaramtoni are football obsessed and didn’t need much encouragement to get training for the event!

Our volunteer Jane Griffiths who was teaching at Kimnyak Primary got the ball rolling (quite literally!) at the beginning of the year. Then Andre Le Gouais arrived at Timbolo Primary in March and things really started moving. Andre and Samwel (one of the teachers at Timbolo) organised a match schedule, wrote out all the rules and league system, and invited Emaoi Primary, Kimnyak Primary, Sambasha Primary as well as Timbolo Primary to take part.

All of the schools were really excited and training started in earnest as well as some pre-tournament friendlies. In the mean time Andre and Samwel were hard at work searching out brand new kits for the teams and negotiating the best prices possible. As well as kits for each school, Clive’s money funded footballs for each school, a fantastic trophy, official referees and linesman from the Ngaramtoni Football Association and lunch and refreshments for all the players. And of course no football match would be complete without the half-time oranges!

Thankfully, tournament day, Friday 30th May, was overcast and not the scorcher we were dreading! The teams looked fantastic in their new strips and I think we all had a lump in our throats as they lined up and sang the national anthem. The first part of the competition was a league system, with everyone playing each other. All 4 teams were closely matched and competition was fierce. There were some flashes of brilliance from individuals and some spectacular goals. These were accompanied by the obligatory pitch invasion. There were well over 1000 spectators, including the local village chairman who completely failed to be impartial, shouting loudly for Sambasha and criticising all their mistakes!

After a great few hours of football we were left with a final of Sambasha versus Kimnyak. We broke for a tasty lunch and then were back for the climax. By the end of the first half the teams were poised at nil – nil. David Kinisi then suggested putting the trophy on display (like for the World Cup) to give the boys that extra bit of encouragement. Well, it nearly caused a riot! There were hundreds of spectators crowding round it, I don’t think they had seen anything like it before. As the second half progressed we saw a few tired players, but we also saw 2 fantastic goals from Sambasha, as they finished deserved winners. They enjoyed their well-deserved lap of honour with the trophy with most of the teachers and spectators trailing behind. It was a really super day all round. We now have plans for a netball tournament later in the year and the boys have already started training for the next football tournament in September – any volunteers who want to help organise it are most welcome in Ngaramtoni!