Food Water Shelter / Kesho Leo

Food Water Shelter is an Australian organisation which builds and maintains eco-friendly children’s villages with education, social and health facilities for vulnerable women and children in developing countries.

Kesho Leo (meaning ‘tomorrow today’) is FWS’s first children’s eco-village, located within Sinon village, in the Arusha region of Tanzania. In addition to the eco-village itself, FWS supports a variety of educational services including primary and secondary schools, adult and vocational education, community health education, English language tuition and permaculture training.

FWS is firmly committed to the principle of localisation, hoping to reduce the dependency of Kesho Leo by empowering local staff, including through training. The teachers in Sinon understand the importance of education and are committed to providing quality teaching to the children. In order to build the local teachers’ capacity to do so, Food Water Shelter placed a request with Palms Australia for an Education Manager to assist with improving their educational and management systems.

Jennifer Ferris

Jenny Ferris is a primary teacher from Palmwoods in Queensland.  She also has experience in horticulture and information technology.

Jenny brings a great variety of relevant expertise, including previously having volunteered with Palms in the Northern Territory and independently in Africa in animal rehabilitation.

Jenny is committed to contributing what she can to build a just world, and is excited about the opportunities to contribute to the education of Tanzanian children and to work with local staff to develop sustainable systems.

The placement may not be easy but Palms Australia, Food Water Shelter and Kesho Leo believe Jenny is well equipped for the task.

Teaching in Tanzania

March 2, 2012

Only three days after I arrived, I attended a wedding for one of our security guards – it was in a Maasai village. Next there was a family gathering for another worker – our farm manager, and very sadly last week one of the house mothers who lived on the project, suddenly died. She had been sick, but none of the tests indicated her life was in danger. So I have also been to her funeral here in Arusha, and then I drove to attend her burial in Tanga. We were told it was a five hour trip, but we found out it was a seven and half hour trip. It was very long, hot and stressful, driving down. Some roads were OK, but others had pot holes ranging from medium to enormous – one was almost two feet deep. One of the things here is the courtesy extended to everyone. The family knew we were coming so waited for us to arrive before beginning the ceremony.

Where I work in the Kesho Leo school is a 15 minute walk from home, and I do that at least once every day. Basically I have to walk everywhere when I stay in the local area, so I am doing plenty of walking. I find that I like working with the little children a lot more than I expected. I am especially happy to be working with the teachers, Regina and Lucy. They are lovely teachers. The children at Kesho Leo come from both the local community, and the families living in the project. They all have beautiful smiling faces, and are so happy and generally well behaved. I feel that I am in the right place to help the school.

The “mamas” who live here are all very nice. Part of their agreement is to help in the pre-school, so there is a roster for two mamas to be at the school every day. It’s a monthly roster which is sensible, as they can be involved for a long time and understand what the teachers are doing. I learned the mamas’ names first, then the teachers, but learning all the children – twenty in total, plus learning the names of the 43 children in pre-school will take me much longer. Added to that is learning Kiswahili. I am on my way, but with so many things bombarding my memory, I am allowing myself the luxury of not trying to learn too much Kiswahili all at once.

Jenny is a teacher from Brisbane working at Kesho Leo with the support of Palms Australia, Foodwatershelter and AusAID. This is an excerpt from a bigger letter, available here.

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Getting into the swing of things in Tanzania

January 25, 2012

The children at Kesho Leo Chekechea come from both the local community, and the families living in the project. They all have beautiful smiling faces, and are so happy and generally well behaved. I feel that I am in the right place to help the school.

Click here to read the full article

Once more into the fray

December 9, 2011

Volunteering can be both a challenging and immensely rewarding experience. Few returnees would claim to remain unchanged by the experience. Some, such as Des Hansen and Monica Morrison, value the experience so much that they return for another placement.

Click here to read the full article

Write to Jennifer Ferris

All fields marked with * are required. Please do not use this form to ask volunteers about volunteering. For more information on the opportunities available, contact the Palms Australia office using our online enquiry form or call (02) 9518 9551.

Conditions of Use

Tanzania

Population: 40,213,160

Area: 945,087 sq. km.

Median Age: 17.8

Literacy: 69.4 %

Languages: Kiswahili, Kiunguja, English, Arabic, many local languages

Tanzania was formed when newly independent Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged in 1964. It is home to Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro, largest lake, Lake Victoria (which it shares with Uganda and Kenya), and deepest lake, Lake Taganyika. It also hosts the famous Serengeti National Park. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. [...]

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