Canadian Harambee Education Society – CHES

Barb and Leo first became aware of the CHES program when the Victoria contacts, Chris and Catriona Harker, made a presentation at a Results Canada meeting. With photos and stories from their time in Tanzania, Africa, they presented the case for supporting girls education past grade eight in Tanzania and what they were doing about it.

Barb and Leo were impressed with their zeal, their track record as demonstrated with photos and letters, and their concrete and realistic plans for the future. They decided to support the CHES program in Tanzania. Barb made a committment to paint a series of paintings dedicated to fundraising for the CHES program.

Any paintings on the website with a tag of Tanzania are a part of that program. As of mid-Nov, 2006, Barb has finished Dancing in the Sky and has two more underway.

We invite you to go to the CHES website and learn more about the program. If you decide to help them, please send us an email and tell us about it. We would really appreciate hearing from you. Support for the CHES program

From the Canadian Harambee Education Society website :

Intelligent, ambitious female students in Kenya and Tanzania can’t go to high school if they can’t afford the fees.

All students get free education to the equivalent of grade 8. If their marks in the national government exams come in the top third, they are invited to attend the better high schools.

What an opportunity! Except that they have to pay school fees, presently about $400 Canadian dollars a year, fees that are far out of the reach of poor rural families, whose annual income is only about $300.

This is where the Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES) steps in. The fees cover tuition, books, supplies, a school uniform, plus room and board: all required to attend high school.