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m stouffville suntribune 9 wwtivw livr thursday feb 3 2005 students help peers in igoma africa summitview public school students donated 60000 items for children attending school in the town of igoma in tanzania africa through the stouffville igoma partnership project students helping load were from left michael dewar mario tanev and james moule by joan ransberry staff writer more than 60000 school supply items are on their way to east africa thanks to a stouffville school when james moule 12 and tanya burford 13 of summitview public school learned a drive was on to col lect supplies for students attending two schools in the tanzanian village of igoma they volunteered to help the children in africa dont have the money to buy school supplies james stressed they need our help tanya encouraged her grade 8 class to participate noting it feels good to be able to help the children in launching the drive special education teacher nancy clark and child and youth worker nina bettencourt decided to use the fact the distance between stouffville and igoma is 12000 kilometres the goal was set at 12000 itenis mrs clark said the response was overwhelming we went way beyond the goal to collect more than 60000 a humanitarian partner ship between whitchurch- stouffville and igoma was sale prices freight taxes license and admin extra sale pricescaj3notj3ejxm based on terms specified above freight taxes license admiri extra 20400 krrtper year f50 pwexcessive km driven at lease end see dealer for details 3 fl certified fivestar dealer c h r y s l e chrysler financial 0 jfl f m 4l 4 flfc m o fil ft financing provided by srvr l mm mkyrj chrysler financial 8280 woodbine avenue markham south of hwy 77west sidmcrosslrorti costco established just over a year ago following a request from a committee spear headed by stouffville missionary church now east ridge whitchurch- stouffville council gave unanimous support to have the municipality partner with igoma the provincial and federal governments have endorsed the project the first ofits kind in canada in promoting the drive stouffville igoma partnership committee chairperson peter neufeld showed the students a video outlining life in igoma james tanya and the other students were shocked to learn how different school is for igoma children the average classroom has one teacher and 120 students while four or five students share a desk the majority of children sit on a dirt floor there are no windows in a classroom mr neufeld said there is just a hole in the outside wall during a factfinding trip to igoma mr neufeld visited the two elementary schools each has 2000 students children get one note book a year he said they desperately need supplies including pencils and lined notebooks the partnerships primary goal is urging residents to become involved in improv ing the quality of life in igoma mr neufeld said a plan is in the works to have residents sponsor the youth of igoma so they can take apprenticeship courses and improve their quality of life its hoped individuals families neighbourhoods churches service clubs and schools will all support the partnership he said for the most part igoma runs on a barter system with people scrounging for food life is especially difficult for the children he said its an agricultural subsis tence economy with 80 per cent of the population of 42000 involved in primitive farming most of the older stu dents drop out of school to go to work farming mr neufeld said while the average house hold income in whitchurch- stouffville is 900000 about 300 a year comes into the average igoma home orpiiter instr uc1i0i for children adults seniors oneonone or small groups learn the basics keyboardingtyping 10hour course for children using the internet word processing and email esl classes also available convenient hours days evenings weekends contact bpnnie irwin 905 4723319 ontario secondary school teacher member of ontario college of teachers now jh8s pii ft 99 lunch specials 202 main st unionviue wwwtorontocomjakes i 1