Graduation for Rama

The final year of high school before university

When I, Bernadette Kögler, embarked on my first major trip to Tanzania in 2012, I knew it wouldn’t be my last. The country and its people are incredibly peaceful and very hospitable. Unfortunately, corruption is widespread in this country, and it even extends into the orphanages, directly affecting the children there. When I saw the children at the Faraja Orphanage in Arusha and realized that they were being used solely for promotional purposes and to make money I decided to take one of their children out of there and send him to a proper school.

Rama, who was 6 years old at the time, is now 19 and is a half-orphan who was taken in by his aunt, even though she already had a son of her own. From day one, Rama told me that he wanted to become a doctor, and since this touched me so deeply, we have been doing our best ever since to make that possible for him. Five years ago, he graduated from primary school, and at that time we gave him we gave him a bicycle as a graduation gift. After that, he attended a Catholic private school in Moshi, the city right next to Kilimanjaro, where he received an excellent education. He always worked extremely hard to get the best grades so he could one day attend university.

Rama has now been attending private schools for 13 years and has completed his final year. He has always been fortunate to meet kind-hearted people. One particularly nice teacher supported him, helping him get through the last few years. She was also generous enough to let Rama complete his final year, even though we haven’t been able to pay for it yet.

To cover the cost of this final year and thus guarantee that he graduates, I launched this campaign to give Rama the opportunity to prepare well for university.

If I could find future supporters for Rama through this crowdfunding project, that would, of course, be the best thing that could happen!!!

Motivation is everything!

Rama is more than eager to start university in September. Despite a lack of funds, he decided not to wait for money to be sent to him, but instead began building a small soap business on his own. He makes the soap himself and has so far sold it mainly to his teachers, who naturally want to support him in this endeavor.

Rama has also involved Remi (the second child we, my father and me, have been supporting for 10 years) in his business to support him as well. With the small income he earns from making soap, he regularly helps orphans from two different orphanages.

Rama’s huge heart is so full of love that this is his greatest motivation for going to college—he wants to earn enough money in the future to help as many orphans as possible.

Warm support on site

Without the help of my good friend Melly Frank Lyamuya, I would never have been able to sustain this project for so long. He is very reliable and always transferred the money directly to the schools, kept in touch with Rama and his relatives, and went shopping with him whenever he needed something important! Melly himself has had only one hand since he was 6 years old. Now he lives completely independently with just one hand and has even had his own small safari company for several years.