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Issue 00442 |
October 21 - 27, 2006 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Local News |
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Former beauty envoy now out to help orphans By Valentine Marc Nkwame Saida Kessy, is back after keeping a low profile for over two years. The Arusha beauty queen of 1997 who attained a national crown as Miss Aspen Tanzania has just expressed her intention to channel her energy towards community service, assisting the orphans. Last weekend, Kessy, a Human resources officer at the Arusha based UN- Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), observed her 31st birthday and chose to mark the occasion by paying a visit to the Samaritan village, a local community- based orphanage located in Moshono area, south east of Arusha Municipality, where she donated a consignment of foodstuff, soap and other basic domestic needs to the 17 children staying at the center. Coincidentally also the beauty envoy’s Birthday, celebrated annually on the 15th of October, almost goes in sync with her son’s Sean, who on the other hand, blew his five candles (on cake), last Monday, October 16, with a distant kiss from his dad Victor, who happens to be away at the moment, working for the United Nations in Sudan. Sean expressed some new zests of his life, a new toy from ‘Pick n’ Pay,’ for instance. Kessy had for five years continuously been organizing local beauty events here both on regional and zonal levels before taking off the gloves. Her last week’s visit to the orphanage, according to the envoy, was a curtain raiser to what she has in mind, a mission to cater for both orphans and homeless children. “Using my title as both the past Miss Arusha and Miss Tanzania, I think I will be able to persuade many people and organizations, both local and international to help the needy children. So much money in Arusha is being misused in indulgences such as massive drinking and partying, while a number of children are suffering here,” she said. Founded in 1996 the Samaritan village Tanzania has both been rescuing and catering for children who have either been dumped or abandoned by their parents, both at birth or a few days after being born. Josephat Mmanyi the ‘father’ in charge at the center revealed that there were even some children who were found dumped with their umbilical chords still uncut. At the moment the Samaritan Village, caters for 17 children, aged between 4 months and 13 years. The oldest, a girl, is currently attending a boarding school but she normally returns to rejoin the rest at the center during holidays. The Samaritan village, has a total of seven working members of the staff and also regularly incorporates services of other volunteers. Marking its tenth year of community service, the Samaritan village, which is not exactly a village but rather a hill-perched large house, serving as a warm home to abandoned children, has catered for 21 orphans since 1996, some of these got adopted through the Arusha regional welfare service department.
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