Tumaini Tuwati Nnko was born on June 11, 2005 in Arusha, Tanzania. Tumaini, (the Swahili word for Hope), was the last of eight children born to a poor family. Her mother died in childbirth and her father left her in the care of the staff at Nkoaranga Orphanage, which housed 25 children from newborns to age 5.
I came to Nkoaranga orphanage through a volunteer organization in March of 2007 when Tumaini was a few months shy of her second birthday. Tumaini didn't walk or talk at that time and had an unusual (though very quick) way of crawling and an infectious spirit. She especially loved babies younger than her, and would crawl to them and pinch their cheeks and speak to them in her own made up language. What was supposed to be a 3 week trip for me turned into a 3 month volunteer stint.
I noticed a lump on Tumaini's lower back and a look through her medical file informed me that Tumaini had spina bifida. In the U.S. spina bifida is the most common permanently disabling birth defect. It is a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth. This defect occurs in the first month of pregnancy and is widely believed to be a result of a folic acid deficiency in pregnant women.
With the support of the dedicated orphanage staff I was allowed to take Tumaini to a large hospital in the nearby town of Moshi near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Large numbers of people flock to this hospital as Tanzania is very short of medical specialists and it took us several days of waiting to be able to see a pediatrician. The pediatrician we eventually saw informed us that people with spina bifida need to see a neurosurgeon and get an MRI to determine appropriate medical care. The only neurosurgeons in the country were a 10 hour bus trip away in the capital city of Dar es Salaam. The doctor said the best we could do for her to was to get her an ultrasound of her kidneys annually (as spina bifida often relates to complications in this area) and to build her special orthopedic shoes which would correct the severe turn out of her feet.
The shoes we obtained for Tumaini helped immensely and by the time I returned to the U.S. she was just beginning to walk. Over the next few years I was drawn to Tanzania to see Tumaini and all of the children at Nkoaranga Orphanage again and again. In total I have spent over a year volunteering there since my first visit.
A fantastic organization called The Foundation for Tomorrow obtains sponsors to provide scholarships to a local private boarding school for the orphans at Nkoaranga. In Tanzania the secondary school drop out rate is extremely high. Part of the reason for this is that primary school is taught predominantly in Swahili and secondary school is taught primarily in English. In private boarding schools English is taught immediately which makes for a significantly easier transition to secondary school.
In 2011 I became Tumaini's sponsor. She entered "baby class" with the rest of the children born in 2005 at Usa River Academy in January. Two years ago I bought beaded stars handmade by local women from the Masai tribe in Arusha. I sold them to families and friends and used 100% of the profits to pay for Tumaini's education thus far.
I am now continuing to sell stars so I can pay for all of the future years of Tumaini's schooling. In addition to her education I am also fund raising for a trip for Tumaini and I to the capital city in Tanzania to finally meet with a neurosurgeon so she can get the MRI and consult that she has always needed. It is possible that she will need a surgery, until we meet with the neurosurgeon we won't know.
Billions of dollars of aid are wasted every year in Africa. Countries that receive the most aid typically become poorer due to corruption and increased population which creates more poor citizens. Studies show that education is the best way to empower people. You are essentially giving someone the tools to obtain a job and support themselves and their families financially.
We all know the proverb "it takes a village to raise a child". Never has this been more true than in the case of Tumaini. It has been through the generosity of my friends, family and strangers that Tumaini has the opportunity for a good education. I am only one person, but withe support of all of you who read this, we can give Tumaini the opportunity for proper medical care as well.
