Virtues for Holistic Child Development in Tanzania

BRIGHT JAMII INITIATIVE (BJI)

BJI is our non-governmental organization that operates across Tanzania working in grassroots communities with a keen focus on comprehensive child protection systems. BJI exerts all its efforts in child empowerment, influencing a child-friendly legal framework, and promoting positive social norms for the best interest of the child while employing human rights and interfaith approaches to attain its goal.  BJI works closely with the Government and Religious Institutions in its interventions.

During this reporting period, we have established two Bright Clubs that learn about The Virtues Project.  In January 2020, BJI established two Bright Clubs with a total of 84 pupils (34 boys and 50 girls) at Hope Primary School located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Bright Clubs are voluntary clubs formed and managed by pupils, supervised by teachers with the capacity building by BJI, to support the promotion of safe schools and life skills through a child participation method. Since their establishment, children have had 12 sessions, and teachers have shared how much more confident, more disciplined, and are more helpful to one another children have become.

In February, a two-day teacher training, an Introduction to The Virtues Project, was provided for 12 teachers (5 male and 7 female) at Hope Primary School who became receptive after seeing the transformation in students.  Training increased teacher capacity to understand the children more, new ways to communicate with them, increase in their ability to help students with challenges they face in order to have full participation in school.  This has expanded to the parents' engagement as well in promoting the well-being of their children.  

BJI has been engaged by the school to address a number of trauma cases that children go through as a result of the parents’ conflicts and fights, using the fifth strategy, offer companioning.

Additionally, in February BJI conducted a one-day training for Support Staff (5 male and 4 female) including secretaries, cooks, cleaners, drivers, etc. in order to create a virtues’ environment at the Hope Primary School. The support staff interacts with children quite often and they had been facing challenges on how to best communicate with them. After the training, they committed to using the language of virtues to make communication easier and they asked to be treated the same when they were in school.

COVID UPDATE:
In the current context of COVID_19, with school closed, BJI is developing and designing a virtues’ online content for a campaign that will target students and parents accompanied by online live talks inviting different speakers on positive parenting with The Virtues Project to join in giving the talks while BJI promotes the program for people to join and interact with the talk.

We thank you for your charitable donations.  Your generosity helps fund our materials, technology, and training costs.  Thank you for supporting our mission to make schools safer by creating cultures of caring through implementing the Five Strategies of The Virtues Project.

Links:

• https://www.virtuesproject.com/Pdf/5VirtuesStrategies.pdf