HAPO Ceremony

On our final Friday in Tabora, HAPO held a ceremony to welcome the new children and provide all 24 HAPO kids with new school uniforms, bookbags and shoes. Community leaders including a member from the Tabora Ward District Council as well as the guardians of the children were there to be a part of this very special day. Decorations were donated by the owner of the Tabora Hotel and food was catered from a local restaurant. Indeed it was a very big deal.

Unbeknownst to me and Siwan, this welcome ceremony was also in large part a goodbye ceremony for us, the exiting volunteers. In the photo above the children were nervously singing us a goodbye song.

And then it was our turn to give a speech we had prepared to thank the children, the staff, and friends. We read it in Swahili (thanks Gayo & David for the translation help!) but I’ll spare my non-swahili speaking readers. Here is the English version…

“Before Siwan and I arrived in Tabora we were both always in a hurry, running here and there, eating on the go, having very little time to rest, and working in big office buildings every day. Arriving in Tabora was a very big change for us…and we could not be happier to have this experience of working and living in Tabora.

HAPO is an organization which we have had the pleasure of working with and seeing grow into a thriving drop-in centre for Tabora’s most beautiful children. We are both deeply commited to HAPO as we ourselves have seen the change in the childen academically, socially, and in their general well-being.

We have learned so much during our time here, from the HAPO staff and the children themselves, and we must say a big thank you to everyone. Thank you to Dr. Sekasua and Mama Sekasua for sharing their HAPO vision and allowing us to be a part of its success. Thank you also for their hospitality and relentless kindness. Thank you to Mama Houli for taking on our troubles with a smile. Thank you to Mr. Ndaki and Mr. Mwendapole for testing us in Kiswahili and keeping us on track. Thank you to Bernadete for her friendship and guidance. Thank you also to all of the HAPO staff and HAPO friends who have helped us have fun with their good humour and smiles. Thank you also to Faye and Christine for their fresh ideas and enthusiasm for the HAPO programme – and for not burning down the house when we went to Kigoma!

Last but not least, thank you to the HAPO children. We love each and every one of you. We believe in you. You are very special. You each have unique talents so work hard, listen to Mama Sekasua and believe in yourselves. You will succeed and we will never forget you!”