LEA SCHOOL & ORPHANAGE HOSTEL UPDATE

LEA SCHOOL & ORPHANAGE HOSTEL UPDATE
Martin Tango and his wonderful family (above) run an amazing school and orphanage in the small town of Dongobesh, Tanzania. I've touched on LEA in past blogs...but a brief summary of their beginnings and where they are presently at are as follows:

• Martin was an orphan by age 13; made his way from the bush villages to the town of Dongobesh and was taken in by Pastor Zakayo (another amazing story that I need to share about some day). Pastor Zak and his wife, still take in "stray" children and have something like 20 to 30 living in their humble home.
• Zakayo mentored Martin, brought him in as part of his evangelical ministry called Maasheti (spelling might not be quite right).
• Martin was touched by the plight of the street kids, and the lack of education or housing for them, as he was once in this situation himself.
• With the encouragement of Zakyo and some of his supporters; LEA preschool and primary school began in 2005 with 20 children.
• When I first visited in 2013 LEA had about 300 students, about 280 living in very rough housing (but better than living on the streets, see past blogs for images).
• In 2015 a local friend, Mark Croskrey, his son, and friend David Slater, along with other donors raised funds and had a well installed in this parched part of the earth, to help the school, and town. At that time the school had a little over 400 students.
• LEA now has over 600 students, is adding a secondary school is achieving some of the best academic test results in this part of the country; mostly orphaned or single parent children...all because of a vision the Lord gave Martin, encouraged by pastor Zak 12 years ago.
  
• Housing is still a problem; the government made the students move from the substandard living conditions, but the cost to rent the new housing is high. 
• I was blessed to help design a hostel (dorm) for the children; and in 2015, towards the end of our visit to Tanzania, a landowner next to the school agreed to sale LEA his land for this dorm and more educational buildings in exchange for other property LEA owned not quite a close to the campus.
• Please pray that the Lord provides the funds to help build the housing and improved kitchen facilities for these amazing students and this amazing program.