Student life at Tahima Yili

As you may remember last year our dream of a student hostel in Tamale to enable young people from village communities to continue their education in the regional capital came true. In October 2008, the hostel opened its doors to 16 young people on completion of the first building phase (see our blog entries 'Building, Building, Building' and 'A dream comes true'). Since then, the following video has been made about the hostel. It gives a good idea of what the hostel is like, what it means to the students to have the opportunity to stay at ‘Tahima Yili’ and the challenges it is facing. As the video narrative is in Dutch, we’ve given a summary in below in English. We hope it will give you a flavour of what life is like at ‘Tahima Yili’.

The students themselves describe how a place at the hostel helps them in their studies and in their lives. The girls explain how in their villages after school they have to carry firewood/water, cook and sometimes work on the farm. After they have done all the household chores there is no time and energy left to study. At the hostel, even though they do have some chores to do, there is a lot of time left to study. Besides this they also learn to live together with other people, how to keep their environment clean and they learn a lot about God through their daily evening devotions. Sarah (the girl typing) explained that before she came to stay at the hostel, she had finished her first year in secretarial school. Her parents had rented a room for her to stay in Tamale as there is no such vocational school in her village. However, when she was due to start the second year, her parents told her that they no longer had the financial means to rent a room and so she would not be able to continue her studies. Then she heard about the hostel and was offered a place for which she is very grateful.

Alhassan is also happy to be staying at the hostel. He started Junior Secondary School in September last year. In his village, after school, he often has to help in the farm. As there is no electricity in his village, he has no opportunity to study in the evening (the sun sets by about 6.30 pm). He is therefore very happy that he can stay at the hostel and that he is assisted in his studies by Pastor Barnabas (the house parent) as well. When he is asked whether he likes the food in the hostel he has to laugh; he replies that he eats things in the hostel he has never seen in his village before. He is even learning to cook a little!

Pastor Barnabas, their house parent, explains about the challenges of life at the hostel. Besides taking care of his own family with 3 children, taking care of 16 students and assisting them with their homework is quite a job but he enjoys it a lot. The biggest challenge is the lack of certain facilities. Currently there are 7 rooms, 3 of them are occupied by his family, the others by the students. There is no kitchen, library or study room, neither are there storage facilities. Especially now, during the rainy season, this causes difficulties. Another challenge is the needs of the students themselves. Some of them do not have bicycles and walk more than 10 kms a day to and from their schools. For those with bicycles, there are times when their bicycles break down and the students themselves do not have money to repair them. The hostel would also like to buy books for the students to use in doing their homework.

Thank God for:

• The facility of the hostel and how it helps students from rural areas and deprived homes
• The ‘house parents’ and their family, for their dedication and sacrifice
• That a start has been made with building a house for the 'house parents'
  
  

Pray for:

• The students - that they will excel in their studies
• The ‘house parents’, that they will be able to take care of their own children as well as the needs of the students
• Funding, to finish the other buildings needed
• A viable income generating project to make the hostel sustainable in the long term