The Change Agent in Kaliua, Tabora; Elia Mgao

After landing at the world's cutest airport in Tabora, we were greeted by Elia Mgao. On the 2-hour road trip en route to Kaliua, we went through the programme and updates since 2019.

Before meeting the children and his colleagues at Usangi Primary school, we met with the acting director and several other representatives at the Kaliua District Education Office. We learnt that Kaliua has many children with disabilities who are not going to school. Kaliua are in the process of building schools, and will also prioritise building competence on special needs education. They already have five specialized teachers, and this autumn, they will send six more teachers to attend the Patandi Teachers’ College study programme in special needs education. The Kaliua officer of special needs joined us for the whole day. His name is Nzela Jagadi and he is blind.  He is really engaged in special education and building competence in these subjects. A really important role model!

Elia's class at Usangi includes 7-8 children with physical disabilities.

Some of the teachers at Usangi Primary

Elia has been doing outreach activities in the surrounding area to get parents to send their children to school.  We met several of the mothers, who are strongly engaged in the situation of children with disabilities. They explained that the children are doing well at school, but that the distance to school is a big challenge. The children must go to school on foot. They get tired and it is not always safe. The children are also being bullied because they can't walk as fast as the other children. But the mothers see that the children have a community at school, and that they already have learnt a lot.

Elia is now working at Zugimlole Primary school. This school is planning on conducting a programme in vocational training for teenagers who are out of school for different reasons. Elia has completed a course in vocational training. His idea is that through training in such as sewing, carpentry, cookery, building construction and other skills, it will help the teenagers to live independently. Elia is working to create awareness and disseminate information about this programme among teenagers and parents in streets. Based on his experiences, pupils who are failing at their final examination in primary school, never go back to school to try over again, but they remain at home. This is in particular a problem to children with disabilities. When staying at home, they become a burden to their families and the nation.

They are planning to start up in September this year, and it will be for free!