Isack lives with his mother. His duties at home include carrying water, gathering firewood and buying or selling in the market. There are 2 children in the family. His mother is sometimes employed as a seller in the market.
Soccer, playing with cars and telling stories are Isack's favorite activities. In primary school his performance is average and he also regularly attends church activities and Bible class.
Because of your sponsorship, Isack will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.
Isack lives in the hillside community of Mbulu, home to approximately 4,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and tin roofs. The primary ethnic group is Meru and the most commonly spoken languages are Kimeru and Kiswahili.
The regional diet consists of maize and beans. Common health problems in this area include malaria, pneumonia and chicken pox. Most adults in Mbulu are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $12 per month. This community needs secondary schools, vocational training centers and health services.
The sponsorship allows the staff of Church of God Titiwi Student Center to provide Isack with Bible teaching, health screening, hygiene education, sports, educational field trips, picnics, educational materials and uniforms. The center staff will also provide meetings and opportunities for project involvement for the parents or guardians of Isack.
Tanzania, formed in 1964 when Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged, is East Africa's largest country. Tanzania displays great diversity, including a low-lying coastal belt, a highland plateau populated by rich wildlife reserves and the island of Zanzibar, a former spice center. It is also home to Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. The climate ranges from tropical to nearly temperate in the highlands.
Little is known about the earliest history of Tanzania. Few artifacts before the Christian era have been found. Tanzania's vast resources have helped create industries in tobacco, sugar, diamond and gold mining, cement and tourism. Yet Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, which provides 85 percent of exports and employs 80 percent of the work force. But topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops to only four percent of the land area. Swahili and English are the official languages for Tanzania's 130 ethnic groups. About one third are Christian and one third are Muslim. It's estimated that nearly 1 million people, or six percent of adults in Tanzania, have HIV/AIDS. Nearly 100 percent of the country's population is native African. Compassion works in 12 of the country's 21 zones.
European explorers, including the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, penetrated the country in the mid-nineteenth century and it was colonized by Germany and later Great Britain, from which it gained freedom in 1961. From independence in 1961 until the mid-1980s, Tanzania was a one-party state with a socialist model of economic development. Beginning in the mid-1980s, under the administration of President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Tanzania undertook a number of political and economic reforms. Two parliamentary by-elections in early 1994 were the first-ever multiparty elections in Tanzanian history.
Map of Tanzania
Child's Location: Southwest of Arusha
