Students in Tanzania’s Tabora region have benefited from money raised at the recent Global Tobacco Networking Forum in Antwerp, Belgium.
During the GTNF gala dinner, in June, the organizers auctioned off various items and donated the proceeds—almost $3,000—to the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT).
The ECLT has added the funds to its scholarship support program for students at a school in Kasisi Village in Urambo, Tabora region. The GTNF donation enables 72 children to buy uniforms, shoes and other materials required to attend school.
ECLT is running a project through two districts of Tabora. Thousands of children are enrolled in school or in vocational training thanks to the support of the project, collaboration from the district and the mobilization of volunteers from the villages who watch over the children and educate parents so that children are sent to school.
According to ECLT, children in tobacco-growing families are often forced to work on the farm because they are too poor to purchase school uniforms or materials.
In a four-year project, ECLT, along with its partners, are developing capacity of the district and local communities to provide for their children themselves and to ensure they stay in school even after the project ends.