MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Fall 2024

Anna Johnson, Tanzania

About 70 students and 20 staff marched through the streets in a display of unity and pride representing Huruma School.

MWANZA, TANZANIA—It was August 2004 when former teacher and Maryknoll lay missioner Bertha Haas was approached by a few locals with a favor to ask: Would Bertha be willing to teach a few children during the mornings? These children had disabilities that excluded them from attending the government schools—and so they were left to spend their days at home with no opportunity to learn or interact in the larger community. She immediately said “yes”—and Huruma School for Children with Disabilities was born.

Jump forward 20 years. Looking around the colorful walls of Huruma’s three-room schoolhouse, seeing the trees and bushes that now fill what was once a dumping ground for trash, and listening to the excited chatter of about 70 students and 20 staff as they gathered to proudly march through the Pasiansi streets in a display of unity and pride representing Huruma School—one could not help but feel God’s spirit at work.

As children and teachers danced to the drums and trumpets, waved banners, and made their way through the street (some carried, some pushed in wheelchairs, some proudly marching to music they could only imagine but not actually hear)—it’s hard to picture a life for these kids without Huruma.

Huruma means “compassion” in Swahili. There was much compassion on display at Huruma School this week. Unfortunately, those with disabilities (whether physical or intellectual) are often left out and left behind. This is true back home in the United States—but it is especially true here in Tanzania. Just like people with disabilities in the U.S. had to work hard for decades to be included in schools and society at large, here in Tanzania the hard work is just beginning. Yet seeing children with differing abilities making their way down a Tanzanian street in a parade of celebration and pride shows how far inclusion for those with disabilities has come in just 20 years.

Anna Johnson, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner since 2022, assists Huruma School and helps students with disabilities in being able to attend school and receive needed medical care.

Yet so much work still needs to be done. While Huruma School is able to offer amazing services to around 70 kids a year, one can only imagine how many children in a city of 2 million are NOT receiving the services and education they need. While government inclusive classrooms are starting to pop up around the city, these classrooms are severely underfunded. It is not uncommon that 20-30 kids with autism, cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and Down syndrome are all placed in one room with one teacher. While it is a starting point (these children are finally being seen and heard for the first time!), it is not enough.

Inclusion is hard. It takes time. It is expensive. It takes educating communities and shifting stereotypes and deeply held cultural beliefs. But like Bertha and the many committed teachers and staff that have served at Huruma School over the years, I believe it is worth it.

In Matthew 25:40 Jesus states quite plainly, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” For me, this passage (and the one directly preceding it) is one of the most powerful and personally challenging passages of the entire Bible. It is our direct order to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger. This is what Jesus calls us into: radical inclusion. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s inconvenient. Even when the outcome is unknown and others may reject the work you are doing.

While Tanzania may feel “behind” when it comes to including those with disabilities, I am often reminded by headlines in the news and stories from back home that we in the United States, too, have plenty of work to do when it comes to inclusion. Where, in our own communities back home, do we find the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, and the stranger being excluded instead of included. What is my role? To whom am I being called to better serve, to better include? Jesus went to the margins and included. At Huruma School, we go to the margins, and we include.

What a wonderful blessing it is to see and hear the fruits of inclusion in the smiles and laughter of the more than 70 children being served this year on Huruma School’s 20th anniversary!

Please consider supporting our family’s mission work in Tanzania with a donation through the link below.

We invite you to walk with us as our “COMPANIONS IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!