At the heart of Abbotsleigh’s connection with Bunda Girls Secondary School in Tanzania, through Anglican Aid, is Helen Hoskins, an Abbotsleigh alumni who went on to become a missionary and founder of the school.
Their partnership initiative is named Bega Kwa Bega in Swahili, meaning “shoulder to shoulder”, and represents the relationship between Abbotsleigh students and staff and the community in Bunda.
The relationship with Bunda Girls Secondary School began when Ms Hoskins returned to Australia in 2019 and attended her 50-year school reunion. Invited to speak in chapel, she shared her experience of life and ministry in Tanzania, sparking interest among the staff and students.
“Our partnership is largely about the particular connection between Helen and our girls and our school,” says Dr Alison Gates, Abbotsleigh’s director of research, learning engagement and partnerships. “She has walked our hallways and corridors. To understand the impact of one woman in a community is a life-changing thing.”
Students and staff are actively involved through sponsorship and grassroots fundraising. What began in 2023 with two Year 7 Bunda students being funded through sponsorship from Year 7 girls, has now grown to six students across years 7, 8 and 9. Each sponsorship requires $1,400 per year. Girls of the same age travel through schooling together, with letters and pen-pal opportunities with their peers. Last year, a group of 15 Abbotsleigh students also had the privilege of travelling to Tanzania.
Fundraising is student-led, ranging from barbecues, Krispy Kreme sales, movie screenings and Return and Earn bottle drives. “Each year group is responsible for fundraising that money [for their sponsor students],” Dr Gates says.
During the year meetings and assemblies, Ms Hoskins has provoked the Abbotsleigh girls to grow in compassion through conversations to highlight the differences in culture.
“She asked the students, ‘What are the things you hope for?’,” says the Rev Sarah Hobba, senior chaplain and head of Christian Studies. Ms Hoskins insightfully compared them with results from the same activity run with Bunda girls, which helped students appreciate some of the differences and many of the similarities. “Some of that was confronting for our girls, but it also helped them understand the realities of life for many girls in Tanzania, who can be treated as second class citizens.”
While the trip itself was transformational for the Abbottsleigh students, Dr Gates and Mrs Hobba emphasise that the heart of the partnership lies in genuine, prayerful, ongoing, considered engagement, and pray that this will continue well into the future.
“Our prayer is to continue building strong relationship that are more than financial support, but contributing so that the lives of our girls flourish in both Bunda and Abbotsleigh,” says Mrs Hobba.
