BETTER NATION FOUNDATION  FROM GREEN WATERS PERSPECTIVE

Better Nation Foundation thrives to promote the culture of reading in Tanzania. Their messages are delivered by means of music, dance and drama. They are meant to reach all parents and encourage the them to give the children time to study at home, to send their children to school and to work together with teachers to ensure that all their children are able to read and write by the time they finish better school. Though this might sound easy enough, from watching the Better Nation Videos I have come to have a deeper understanding of the many challenges that might keep our children from attending classes and from learning.

For example, Juma's rich father doesn't understand the importance of education and he forbids his son to attend school. Juma continues to attend, though he gets poor grades because he is not allowed to read at home. In the end, Juma's father disowns his son and the son is left with no support. There are many parents who still don't see the importance of studying and they regard education as a waste of time away from important things, such as farming and other household activities.

Better nation creative group travels from one region of Tanzania to another, delivering the message. In the South of Tanzania, they managed to mobilize 11 schools for an event that was attended by parents, teachers, students and government representatives.

Student speakers mentioned their challenges as lack of study materials, school desks and proper toilet facilities. Large classes within the school while there are only few teachers is also a challenge. For instance, a school of standard 1 to 7, with a minimum of 50 children per class, has only 4 teachers. It makes it impossible to divide the work. Teachers mentioned  challenges due to lack of study materials, toilet facilities , clean drinking water and lack of parents commitment to their children's progress. Government representatives are supporting the message that is being advocated by Better Nation Foundation, by encouraging parents to cooperate with teachers and following up on root causes for children missing classes, and once they discover the root cause they should work together to solve that for the benefit of the children instead of shrugging their shoulders and burying their heads in the sand like an Ostrich.

Basically, Better Nation Foundation delivers the message that we are all responsible for the education of the children. Better nation foundation raises funds by collecting contribution from parents and the rest of the audience after their entertaining educational events. The money is given to the participating schools for the purpose of solving the problems that they mentioned e.g buying school books, making better toilets etc.

I have enjoyed watching the videos, and I as well as Green Waters foundation would like to support the efforts of the Better Nation Foundation in advocating education rights for the children.

''Everyone can make a difference ''
Mwl. J.K Nyerere (1977)