“Asante Sana” means “Thank you very much” in Swahili, the pupils of Whately Elementary School have learned.
It’s also the name taken by a nonprofit based in Connecticut that encourages American school children, like those in Whately’s third, fourth and fifth grades, to raise money to help build and equip primary schools in the East African country of Tanzania.
The local children, who have donated to Asante Sana for five years now, are selling flowers around the Mother’s Day holiday, proceeds of which this year will help build a water tower for the Mnindi Primary School in a city called Bagamoyo. Other years, the money apparently helped furnish classrooms, evidenced by photos from Bagamoyo shown to Whately pupils of smiling students gathered at a desk painted with the words “Donated by Whately Elementary School.”
The charity’s founder, Ashley Washburn, told her Whately collaborators during a recent visit, “These kids are all sitting at your desks … You guys have been very busy in Africa. Did you know that?”
This one particular show of largesse is probably not unique among local residents as a whole, or even among younger people often guided by their elders. But it’s nice to see that schooling in our public institutions can go beyond the academics needed to pass MCAS tests.
Yes, through this program, the Whately pupils are going to learn a bit more about distant parts of the world, like Africa, as Washburn or their teachers note, that Tanzania is home to snow-capped Mount Kilmanjaro, the continent’s highest peak. And the local pupils, guided by teacher Terri Anderson, who started the fundraiser here, have practiced their writing skills by explaining in letters to their counterparts on the arid plains of Africa what snow is like.
Perhaps through these exchanges, the local youth will come to know that you can develop a sense of kinship with others from different cultures and distant shores.
In a way, that might be a more important exchange than cash for desks.
Whately Elementary School Principal Peter Crisafulli, who sat in on Washburn’s visit, noted correctly that the school’s work with Asante Sana gives children the opportunity to make a little money go a long way and to interact with peers half a world away.
“It’s very gratifying for the kids; it’s probably for most of them, their first significant effort at doing some volunteer work … social service work,” he also noted.
We agree, and we applaud the generosity of Whately Elementary’s pupils, not just for what they do for their peers overseas, but also for the charitableness they can foster among their peers right here in Franklin County — and perhaps a few of us adults, as well. We can all stand a reminder of the importance of charity in this world — and for that we say to Whately pupils: “asante sana.”