A note from Mama Lucy:

“I will be more than happy when I’ll be able to make even a slight change in my community.” That was the cry of my heart before September 2003. I love the children very much; I have to do something for them. Education is the key to their success.

In our country, good schools that offer a high-quality standard of education are in high demand; it seems like a luxurious thing. Poor parents cannot afford to pay school fees for their children for such schools. Most of them are living on less than $2 USD per day! The three major problems that hinder development in our country are poverty, disease and ignorance. When starting Shepherds Junior, I said to myself, “Let me see what I can do so as to fight ignorance which will help to fight the other two.”

On September 8, 2003 our journey started with ten kids and two teachers. A month later, the number of children increased to 23. Bearing in mind that we started our journey using a hired truck (i.e., rented premises), it was not an easy task! Since the school had no capital, I took money from my small poultry business and boutique to provide the school rent and running costs. Parents, friends and all the community around me were very happy with my work and they encouraged me. Little kids changed within a very short period of time. The number increased – now to over 150!

Though Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS) has now been closed in Arusha, the organization will never be forgotten by our community, and especially by Shepherds Junior School . Through CCS, we were able to meet and collaborate with different volunteers, among them are these amazing people: Stacey, Sanjay, Diane and Pat. They saw for themselves, carried us in their hearts and took action with their tireless efforts. I’m really happy that the heavy truck I’ve been pulling myself now has more than one driver – Epic Change in the US and Shepherds Foundation, the NGO I’m founding here in Tanzania , whose Board also supports our work. Through their fundraising efforts, Epic Change is working to ensure that fuel is available for our truck.

On our way, on August 10th of this year, our truck had a minor accident: the rented property on which our school resides was sold. But fortunately, Epic Change is helping us to repair our own truck by fundraising and loaning us funds for buying our own land and rebuilding our classrooms. That is incredible! In the midst of all this, we were also hit with another accident; on November 7th 2007, the new owner informed me that we should be able to vacate the property by early February 2008. He has planned to demolish the school and build a hotel.

I am hoping that you will support Epic Change to by making a donation to help us move quickly to address these new developments. Our journey is still long.

With your donations, we will be able to move from our hired truck which is not safe into a new truck of our very own, and we’ll continue on our journey. I’m sure one day we will reach our destination, and reach our goal: to change the lives of children in this poor community by giving them a high-quality education at an affordable cost and provide a place for orphans and needy children. It can be done if we each play our part.

Asante sana (thank you very much),

Mama Lucy Kamptoni