Habari!

     My name is Rogathe John Tippe; my friends call me "Roggi." I was born in 1989 on 14 February in the small village of Slahamo near the town of Karatu in northern Tanzania. My parents are farmers who work everyday in their "shamba" or garden growing maize, beans and some vegetables to help our family survive. They hope that there will be enough left over to sell so that they can buy some goods for home use and help their children to remain in school, but the money is very little.
      I am the firstborn and I have two young sisters, Joyce, 16, who is in secondary school and Lightness, 11, who is in primary school. They are doing well in school and I thank God that they do love their studies and that somehow my parents have been able to keep them in school.
      When I completed primary school at the age of 14, my national examination results were good which allowed me to be selected to attend one of Tanzania's best secondary schools, Agape Lutheran Junior Seminary (high school). But due to the expensiveness of the school fees and the low income of my parents who were depending on the shamba work to pay for my school fees, life became difficult for me due to the school fees problem and I thought I had lost my future. So, I was really worried because life without education is nothing. I just was asking God to open the way to me so that I can proceed with my education.
       One day my dad came home in the evening and he told me how he met with a Lutheran pastor from our area, Pastor Baha, who told him good news about Godparents for Tanzania who are giving educational support for Tanzanian children. I really thanked God for this good news and from there I started hoping for my future life again.
       It was June of 2004 when the group from Godparents for Tanzania came to our village. My dad and I got a chance to see Pastor Westermann who is the leader of Godparents for Tanzania. We explained the situation to him and he told us that he would search for a scholarship. I can't even express how happy we became; we really thanked God for that and we went home very happy that day. From Form II (9th grade), I became a Godparents for Tanzania scholarship student up to now when I am in college being supported by my sponsor, Mama Gail Bolt from Virginia, USA. May God bless her!
      Since I started receiving this scholarship support, great changes have taken place in my life. The scholarship helped me to see my future life which I could not see by myself together with my parents. Godparents for Tanzania also helped my parents a lot because at first they were really very worried about my future life because I was about to leave secondary school due to the school fees problem, but since I obtained this educational support from Godparents for Tanzania, my parents have no worry of my future life again.
      When I was young, I heard a lot from my parents about the universities and colleges although they haven't been there. I was very impressed by those stories and I told them that they will one day see me in one of these institutions. But they told me how sorry they were that it would be impossible for me to study at those institutions due to the expensiveness of the tuition fees and all other costs which they could not afford. I just remained calm and I told them that God will make a way for me to achieve my goals. It is really amazing that today I am in one of the best colleges in Africa, the College of African Wildlife Management-Mweka. Students come from all over Africa and even Europe to study at our school!
      I really thank very much Godparents for Tanzania for turning my dreams into reality. Without them I could be just a village boy with no direction in my life. By now I would be working the farm with my parents so that we could get something to eat. I would just be dreaming of the higher education which could have led me to the better future life and way of helping my family and my country.
      The scholarship for my higher educational studies here at the College of African Wildlife Management-Mweka has given great meaning to my life because what I am learning here will lead to my life's work as a wildlife manager in Tanzania. When I am employed, I will be paid a salary which will help me have a better life and will also enable me to help other people such as my parents and my young sisters so that they can improve from the hard situation they have now. The knowledge and skills I am obtaining will also help me improve and develop the wildlife sector in Tanzania for future generations. The scholarship has really changed my life because I am now seeing a better future.
      After I complete my college studies I will look forward to serving my country. Tanzania is a developing country; it is developing in all economic sectors such as the wildlife sector which need more educated people to take action for better improvement of these sectors and the lives of all Tanzania's people.
      For sure the scholarship I have been provided by Godparents for Tanzania has helped me a lot because there are many Tanzanian children who are just at home and others on the streets. This is because they do not have money to go to school. Some of these children are doing very hard work such as farming, carrying heavy loads, making little businesses such as selling groundnuts and sweets at the bus stands so that they can get a little money to fulfil their needs together with their parents. Others are getting themselves into social evils such as prostitution, robbery, theft and drug abuse. So they are in hard situations which will lead them into worse futures. They really want to go to school and study but poverty forces them to be as they are, so if there could be any chance of giving them support or scholarships in their studies, the poor Tanzanian children will get educated and hence reduce the social evils in the society.
      Almost every Tanzanian child wants to go to school because they know that only through education can they have a better future. I thank God daily that I have this chance!

After graduating Form VI at Agape Lutheran Junior Seminary, a secondary school owned and operated by the Northern Diocese-Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Roggi Tippe is now in his second semester at the College of African Wildlife Management, an internationally recognized college for studies in wildlife management. He will graduate with his Higher Diploma in Wildlife Management in 2012, making him eligible for employment as a Warden by Tanzania National Parks which administers numerous game parks and animal reserves in Tanzania, the country's third largest source of revenue.