Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Step-By-Step
On Tuesday, March 5, I visited Step-By-Step which is a
school for children with disabilities. It’s a very unusual school for Africa.
Margaret is the woman who started the school when her child was little. When
Ruth was born with autism, nothing was available for her education and
treatment. Margaret tried many things—schools, tutors, and even returning to
school to get a degree in Special Education—but still she struggled to provide
her child with the best care. She finally realized that many children needed
services so she started her own school.
At first, the school was in a small rented space but when the lease was
up, they had to move. Margaret then knew
she had to buy and build. With great
trepidation, she bought 5 acres outside of Arusha. There was nothing there. It
was considered part of Maasai land and was thought to be non-buildable and non-plantable
but it was pretty cheap so Margaret bought it.
The road was more like a 4-wheel drive trail and there was no bridge
over the creek which was flooded during the rainy season. Margaret formed a
non-profit, chose a board to oversee it, started applying for grants, began
building and voila! a school was built. Eventually, the population moved that
direction and once a bridge was built, shops and houses popped up and the trail
became a road. Good News! The bad news is that the road to the school, at a
certain point, is impassable when it rains.
I mean it is mired with thick, sticky, gooey, black mud that causes cars
to get completely stuck and people to sink to their calves. The school has to
close from about the middle of March to the middle of May. It had rained the night
before I visited the school so I saw first hand what the challenges were.
In order to get to the school, I went to Njiro Shopping
Complex to meet Margaret with her 4-wheel drive. We drove and slid our way to
the school. Most of the children arrived
at the same time. Everyone sat in a circle
for a morning assembly which they do every day.
It included singing, praying, and a very interesting ritual where the
staff went from student to student, took their hands and did some hand
reflexology therapy, while all the time singing. Here’s the room but I forgot
to take pictures where there were people in it.
Then we all had chai and food. The children and staff sat at a long table.
The children drank chai and ate something.
A few children had brought their food but most of them had bread. Everyone
washed their hands before and after eating.
Then they went to class in another
building. There are sidewalks from building to building because 1) the mud
sucks your feet and glues them to the ground; and, 2) it’s easier for the
wheelchairs to get there.
The school is set up as a farm to not only help sustain it
with food, but to bring in a little money by selling the “fruits of the land,”
and to also help out some of the childrens’ families who are very poor.
There is a new fishery which is stocked with tilapia. It’s
new because the old one wasn’t working out well. When the fish laid their eggs,
they burrowed into the sides and created holes in the lining.
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| New Fishery |
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| Old Fishery |
There are also chickens for eggs and meat.
And there are goats. They have about 20 goats now and hope
to increase the heard to about 100.
One of the newer projects is honey. There are several bee
hives which they hope to increase. (This photo is a bit grainy. I was quite a distance away. These are called "killer African bees" so I was glad for the distance.)
Finally, there is a garden.
This garden isn’t planted right now because they are moving it to an
area where they can make raised beds with good dirt to be able to plant more
things.
Of course, there are the classrooms… a large one for groups;
and, a small one for more one-on-one work.
There is a quiet room with quiet music and minimal
stimulation.
The playground is pretty minimal but it’s a good start.
And there are 2 staff houses for 2 families who live there
and take care of the place.
As you can see there is room to grow. When the students age out of the school, sometimes
they can work at the farm-part of the school in order to have structure, supervision
and employment. Part of the school is training for this.
After a couple of hours, we heard the rumble of thunder and
Margaret said we had to leave before it started raining or we wouldn’t be able
to get out. So we left.
Several groups have come to support and help at the school.
University students and professionals, many from the United States, have come
to teach the teachers and staff how to do various therapies (hand reflexology,
PT, speech). Others have come to help build a fence and a goat shed and other
structures. Some of the children are sponsored by generous donors. Still, Margaret
and the Board are constantly looking for grants and other sources of income to
support the school and the families. There is no Tanzanian government funding
of any kind so everything comes from NGOs and other international organizations.
It’s a very unique kind of school that is very successful. I was so impressed.
Take a look at the website for more information.
