Nigel Lloyd Orphan Support Fund
This fund was started in 2004 as a memorial to Nigel Lloyd, brother of the founder of The Changarawe Project, Carolyn Walford. The fund provides educational support for 150 orphans from the start of primary school until they leave full-time education.
Student selections are made by a small committee comprising welfare staff from The Changarawe Project, plus representatives from the Muslim and Christian communities in the village. When children are selected for the Nigel Lloyd Fund, the first things they are given are a mattress, bed-sheets and a mosquito net. The fund provides all the accessories needed to enable a child to attend school, starting with uniform, shoes and a school bag, plus books, pens and pencils and so on. Students are expected to present their school report at the end of each year.
Children supported by the fund who need extra medical care are taken to and from the clinic or hospital by the nurse. The children also benefit from a monthly social, where they share a meal with the staff and the bibis and babus and can socialise together. All children receive a monthly supply of soap and teenage girls are given sanitary towels.
In 2012 we completed the construction of new orphan welfare centre to hold the social days and which also serves as a library, stocking a broad selection of Tanzanian textbooks and past papers. Year groups from Primary Standard 5 to Secondary Form 4 (GCSE) attend on a rota basis after school, where they receive a meal, a one-hour booster class in maths or English, and the opportunity to spend a few
hours using the textbooks for independent study – and they all have solar lights, so they can get home safely after dark.
The library has proved a successful addition, as Nigel Lloyd orphans are three times more likely to pass their O-levels than the Mongola Secondary School average. To give a further boost to the centre, we have installed 15 computers and are using Whizz Education software to help students improve their skills in Mathematics - a subject in which our students have not performed well in the past.
The fund is partly supported through interest from an endowment fund and the rest through regular donations in the form of standing orders or fund-raising events. Students in post-18 education are supported by individual sponsors.
To help those students who fail to pass their Form 4 (GCSE) exams, in 2017 we worked with CDO to establish computer and tailoring courses, giving vital skills to enable these students to find work post education. The courses are open to any Form 4 leavers in the area and form a revenue stream for CDO. We fund any Nigel Lloyd Form 4 leavers who meet the criteria for sponsorship.
In June, the CDO management team launched a new initiative for the Nigel Lloyd students who have been falling behind in their studies. By talking with each child, the team set out to understand what is holding them back. Many face challenges at home, including being required to do lots of chores alongside studying. Among other steps, we are now looking to increase the number of solar lights available to these students.