St.George's Elementary School in Montreal continues to support the work of Highlands Hope and is also expanding its partnership with the Kibena Women's Association in Njombe to include capacity building for widows. The School is working with Betty Liduke, Director of the TANWAT HIV Care and Treatment Centre and Chair of the Highlands Hope Consortium Nurse-Counselor Network, who was intrumental in setting up the Kibena Women's Association.

Teachers from St. George's are also involved in a project to support the professional development of their colleagues in Njombe. They have arranged for local teachers Lily Barnaba and Agnes Ndunguru to register with "Reading A-Z", an online teaching resource. Reading A-Z offers thousands of printable teacher materials to teach guided reading, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, reading fluency, alphabet, and vocabulary. The teaching resources include professionally developed downloadable leveled books, lesson plans, worksheets, and reading assessments.

Students in Tanzania study primarily in English at the high school level, which is often these children's third of fourth language, and they begin learning English in elementary school. St. George's hopes to transfer some of its expertise in teaching second languages to teachers in Njombe. The School has provided resources to Lily and Agnes to download Reading A-Z teaching resources for use in their classrooms.

St. George's School is a co-educational, non-denominational school committed to a student-centred education of the highest quality within a spirited, engaging, creative and cooperative environment. Its philosophy encourages an individualized and flexible approach to learning and to teaching, while challenging each student to excel. The St. George's community of students, parents, faculty and staff is dedicated to offering a caring and inclusive milieu that balances the importance of self-expression with the rights of others. This outreach to Tanzania is part of the school's "Children Helping Children" awareness project for its students.

The developing partnership between St. George's and Highlands Hope communities like Njombe is being led by Danielle Delhaes with support from a number of her colleagues.

April 12, 2007.