From Unrest to Renewal: A Hope & Soul Christmas in Tanzania
It may be nearing the end of January but we have so much to share with you about our November and December here in Tanzania. With the new academic year starting in January I have only just had a moment this weekend to sit and reflect and share on what an incredible Christmas celebration we were able to have due to such generous and loving donations and sponsors choosing yet again to share the gift of Christmas with those in need (That’s you! Thank you!)
It is important to start back at the end of October. Tanzania’s general elections on October 29, 2025 were followed by significant unrest and international news coverage, as many people protested the disputed outcome and the treatment of opposition figures. Arusha, where we live, was identified as one of the three main cities affected by the unrest, and it quite literally unfolded on our doorstep. Although the five days of internet blackout and nightly curfews were uncomfortable, we are very blessed that our entire Hope and Soul family remained safe during this time. Even as life began to return to a more normal rhythm, the fear and caution that lingered, along with widespread reports of people who were killed or injured, and seeing for ourselves the damaged buildings and infrastructure, have caused us all to seriously reflect on the fragility of peace, and how precious safety and stability truly are. Our hearts remain with all those families directly affected by what happened.
A Christmas Made Possible by Generosity
We were honoured to welcome so many wonderful volunteers to Tanzania in 2025 which in turn has provided a generous supply of clothing donations for our Hope and Soul children and young people. At the start of November I was able to organise a ‘Christmas outfit’ for each of our thirty daycare children and pack them into individual little bags in preparation for our Christmas/Graduation party. Of course here the weather is not even close to a 'white winter' or even cold for that matter so we had an array of beautiful summer dresses and shorts and shirts for the boys.
On the 11th of November I spent some time with little Restuta from Hope and Soul daycare and her family, recording some video footage for a short film we made for our generous daycare sponsors - Turbocam. When you meet our daycare children dressed in wonderful clothing donations, in our wonderful little rented house painted in bright colours, filled with wonderful toys and resources, loved by our wonderful staff, its clear to see that it is all just very - wonderful! It is only when you visit the children at home that you can understand why these children need help. We work with a group of incredibly dedicated mothers and carers, but despite their determination, living on the equivalent of £1 a day, while covering rent and caring for their families, makes breaking the cycle of poverty extremely difficult. You really can only understand if you see it for yourself, but - have you ever had to worry about you or your child not sleeping in a bed? Have you ever had to cook stones in a pot until your children fall asleep because you could not tell them yet again that there is no food for dinner?
A Community That Shows Up
On the 15th of November so many of you showed such generous support for our children and families in need by attending our Christmas fundraiser in Portsmouth and we are still overwhelmed by how busy it was and the incredible sum raised on the day of over £2,000. A special thank you again to everyone who donated items to sell, to my Aunt and Uncle for opening up their beautiful home, Rebecca and Esme for being incredible ambassadors and my parents for their commitment to making this a successful event every year. With your continued support, we hope to carry our fundraising efforts forward into 2026.
If you have an event coming up that you think would work well as a fundraiser, or you are part of a group that might be interested in hosting an event to support us then please let us know! We would love to support you with resources including T-shirts, banners etc. If you prefer to be part of the participation team then keep an eye out for events on our Hope and Soul social media pages.
Our boarding school children started returning for Christmas in the final week of November and we had some big smiles from our form four leavers (end of secondary school) who had finally completed their national exams. Edgar showed up to our office with just a school bag and a mattress! Seeing all of our children complete another year of schooling is an incredible achievement and a clear reflection of the life-changing opportunity they have been able to access.
Due to the number of children in our care, as soon as one academic year ends we are already preparing for the next. After collecting eight of our little boarders on 29th November, who were very reluctant to leave their wonderful boarding house mama Auntie Aggie, we traipsed around town like a mother duck and her eight ducklings, buying new school uniforms ready for January!
A Day to Celebrate How Far They’ve Come
December is an absolute blur of trying to navigate the Arusha city traffic, collecting kids from school or paying for buses home, starting our school uniform and stationary shopping, Christmas clothing shopping trips for our children in most need, home visits to our community kids to give out donations and get sponsor updates, organising food parcels for our daycare kids, visiting new born babies, more primary school pen-pal letter writing sessions, eye checks and new glasses, planning boarding school placements for January 2026 and of course organising our graduation celebration for seven of our Hope and Soul Daycare children.
Our daycare opened in August 2024, and this week I watched a video we made just a few months after opening to share with Turbocam, who made the project possible. Seeing the children now, eighteen months later, is truly incredible, their confidence and growth through quality teaching are a testament to our amazing staff. In Tanzania, the official compulsory starting age for primary school is seven, but in practice many schools now treat age six as the typical starting age. By the end of December 2025, seven of our daycare children were already six or would turn six in early 2026, so they needed to be registered for primary school. Now that all our children have sponsors, we are able to support them as they transition from Hope and Soul daycare into private English-medium schools, giving them the best possible start to their education. We are so proud that all seven of our children passed the entry exam and have now started at their new schools. Our graduation day on December 5th was an incredibly joyous celebration. A special thank you to Amesbury School in Surrey who generously mailed over boxes of soft toys and Christmas cards for each of our daycare children. Every child went home with a food parcel, Christmas outfit, soft toy, Christmas card, balloon and face-paint after enjoying a special chicken and chips lunch. The graduating children had prepared a special little dance for the parents and we gave out gifts to parents of children with 100% attendance in the second term.
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