Sidcot Students return to Tanzania for the Seventh Time
Students from Sidcot School in North Somerset have given up part of their summer holiday to visit an orphanage and an international school in Moshi, Tanzania.
The programme, now in its seventh year, provides community service to a local school and the Upendo Orphanage. This year’s projects, completed by 29 Lower Sixth students and four staff members, included painting classrooms, constructing desks, digging a trench to stop rainwater running through school and planting 500 trees on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
Tanzania trip co-ordinator Jim Scott (also Head of Sidcot School’s Science Faculty) said: “I am proud of the way the students have coped with the challenges of the trip. They are good company and their appreciation of the scenery and the people of Tanzania has been very rewarding to witness. The support we provide to communities in Tanzania is varied and very well received. It is hard work but there was time to relax and play with the children. We were given a wonderful send off by the children with singing and speeches of appreciation from the headmistress and teachers. The school looked much improved as a result of our painting and desk construction.”
The group also enjoyed a three-day trek up Little Meru (3820 metres), a visit to a Maasai village, and safari in the Tarangiri National Park and Nogogoro Crater.
Ilya Bykov, a Sixth Former from Russia, said: “It was certainly the trip of a lifetime and the friendly welcome received from everyone in Tanzania made a lasting impression.”