Concern Blogs

“Karibuni”  from Tanzania, (which means “Welcome to all of you!”  in Swahili).  In this video clip, Concern’s child-to-child hygiene and sanitation club of Kigarama Primary School in Tanzania’s Ngara District does -- to my ears anyway -- a pitch perfect rendition of “Karibuni” in song.

These 11-to-13 year-olds are leaders in their school, and they proudly take on the role of teachers and motivators to deliver messages at home and at school on vital health topics such as latrine use, hand-washing and environmental health.  We arrived at their school on a Sunday, but still there they were, greeting us…in pretty tight harmony. (“Karibuni” was just the first of four equally excellent singing numbers.  The others were more directly related to health and hygiene…but you’ll have to wait for the full video premiere for those.)

It was a beautiful moment, but Concern’s Program Manager Jaka Magoma made sure we knew this was not just window-dressing:

“There is great potential in educating children on these issues because they will grow up with this knowledge.  Once they finish school, they grow up and ultimately they become elders and leaders, and this knowledge will be passed down.  But we are not waiting for that: at the same time we are doing health education outside of the schools at the community level.  So as we work with our partners to install new, clean water sources, like shallow wells, protected springs and piped water systems, we are ensuring that the community leaders of today are engaged.  By doing both, we have wider impact.”