The beginning of July after ensuring all children were back at school safely I was fortunate enough to enjoy a few days in Zanzibar with our Hope and Soul volunteer Eden from USA and two of our friends from Kenya. It was a real treat to have a few days rest in the sunshine and reflect on a busy month of June. Eden had her final week with us at the end of July after two months with us here in Arusha. She has been an incredible blessing and we are still feeling her love as the children enjoy her generously donated toys at daycare and her handmade blankets during nap time. We have spent a lot of time together over the past two months and Eden has really seen the hard work and challenges that we face almost daily doing the work that we do, especially with opening a daycare. Eden has been so dedicated to the set up even knowing that she would miss the opening date. Cleaning the house, planning a teaching curriculum, shopping for supplies, supporting staff meetings, home visits to interview potential children and so much more. It is incredibly humbling to know we are honoured to have volunteers such as Eden and we really thank her for her time and dedication this summer, we already miss you!

July 10th was a big day in Hope and Soul history as we singed the rental agreement on our very first Hope and Soul Daycare house. It had been close to three weeks of negotiations with regards to price, lease agreement terms, maintenance work on the property, opening date and more but finally with a signed contract things felt like they were moving in the right direction. Then the work started on tackling the huge jungle of bushes and banana trees, work which was done by our very own Emanuel and Ronald both Hope and Soul beneficiaries who finished college this year and will go to University in October. After clearing the trees and digging up roots they then proceeded to hand plant grass seedlings and water them faithfully twice a day. We have welcomed painters, carpenters, plumbers, firemen (for our fire safety assessment not for a fire!), social welfare officers, public health officers, village elders, electricians and more all before a child even steps foot in the premises. Even for our very experienced social worker Jenipha starting a daycare has been a  new learning experience for all and it has not been easy. However I am so proud of the team we have built around us to work at the daycare and our ability to face all of the challenges as a strong team supporting one another for the purposes of nurturing the most vulnerable children.

On the 21st of July I organised a Bridal Shower for a close friend who then got married on the 24th which was a wonderful celebration. My Birthday followed on the 25th which was to my planning just another day of cleaning and buying daycare resources however in the middle of carrying parts of banana tree trunk across the pathway I was suddenly serenaded with a Birthday cake and gifts! I had two birthday cakes, flowers, gifts and so many thoughtful messages it was a wonderful day of Hope and Soul Daycare progress and recognition of another year I have been so blessed to continue living out my dream. 

Hope and Soul Daycare has only been made possible through the incredible support of Turbocam a global turbomachinery development and manufacturing company that are providing funding for our first year. We also want to say a big thank you to those of you who have been supporting with  financial gifts that have enabled us to have a good quality set up with purpose built furniture, kitchen supplies, cleaning equipment, sleeping mats and more. A further thank you to those of you who bought from the Amazon Wishlist I made at the beginning of this year, these gifts make up the majority of our daycare toys and resources. Finally a thank you to everyone who has donated toys, books, clothing, resources, stationary, knitted dolls and bears and more we can assure you these children are very worthy beneficiaries of your gifts.

On the 27th of July we had our first ten home visits within the local area of our Daycare to interview potential children and families. Over three days we visited twenty five homes gifting a food parcel to each family and sitting in humble homes on beds, buckets and more to talk about home situations and family histories. After discussing as a team we chose twelve children from the twenty five homes who make up our first intake, we hope to add a further three for a total of fifteen children in the coming weeks. These ten girls and two boys have already captured my heart with individually challenging home situations. We gained consent to take one photo of each child we interviewed and the majority are very nervous which radiates through their eyes, we look forward to filling them with love and confidence until they shine.

Following a morning of home visits on the 27th Jenipha (our social worker), Chaz (our counsellor) and myself sat down for our second half of annual safeguarding training. Perhaps I should have known with the abundance of required paperwork in Nursing that running a charity is not just about getting to do the joyous work like home visits but still month by month I add administration skills and requirements to the workload. It really is an iceberg with the wonderful success stories we are proud to share on social media which is supported by a hue amount of administration. I am blessed with an extremely supportive Trustee team who continue to guide Hope and Soul to be the very best that it can be in all areas, but I am a girl who likes to tick of all the tasks at the end of the day and I am still having to learn the hard way that ‘the list’ will never actually end. Safeguard training is a necessity alongside our focus this month on our compliance with First Aid and Fire Safety within the office and future Daycare. It might not have been our first choice of activity on a Saturday afternoon but time with Jenipha and Chaz reflecting on our learning in action combined with left over birthday cake meant we all finished with smiles.

July also marked the beginning of a Microfinance project for six of our mothers who have been granted funding for small business startups. Starting a business anywhere in the world is not an easy task and we are proud to be working with a development agency to teach and lead the women to reach their fullest potential and have the best chance of running a successful business. This year feels like it is flying, I can honestly not thank you all enough for your commitment and generosity to our work. Alongside opening the daycare and starting the Microfinance project we continue to support close to one hundred children within their homes with education, housing, clothing, food and much more. Our days are nothing short of busy and I continue to work six day weeks to make sure we provide the best service to our beneficiaries. We persevere in building our social media following, if you follow Hope and Soul on Instagram or Facebook please share our posts and encourage others to follow our work. We are incredibly busy, but we are incredibly blessed and this is all due to the generosity of others, thank you for your faith in us as a charity and your generosity of heart for our little ones.