It was a special day, a day of its own kind, when all TFFT scholars, their guardians and TFFT Staff came together for the first TFFT Family Day, on Saturday 13th December 2014. It was a day of celebration, celebrating the achievements our scholars have made in their academics and other skills they demonstrate after acquiring from TFFT, life skills trainings.
Around 10:30am the 3-hour event started. Erasto, TFFT’s Scholarship Program Manager, led the introduction session of all participants, beginning with introducing the TFFT Staff Team, and later the guardians were given an opportunity to introduce themselves along with their scholars. So when a guardian introduced him/herself, he or she would mention the scholar who would respond with a wave to the participants.
The introduction was followed by break-up meetings. TFFT Country Director, Kennedy Oulu, led one of the sessions along with Hedwiga and myself. During this session the guardians learned about TFFT’s plans and goals for the 2015. We also emphasized the role of the guardians in ensuring the wellbeing of the scholars in health, academics, and general peer matters. The guardians agreed to work very closely with TFFT to ensure that they will play their role effectively.
Melissa and Chloe led a session for the guardians of the Primary School Scholars (Pre-Primary, class 1 – class 7) and Erasto and Uswege ran a session for the guardians of the Secondary School Scholars (high school). The groups used this opportunity to vote for the Most Outstanding Scholars within their categories according to certain criteria, and through this two winners were voted from each category, a girl and a boy.
After a very delicious and filling lunch, it was time for the session that every participant had eagerly awaited: the awards session. The awards that were presented were for Outstanding Scholars in Academics and Most Outstanding Scholars (in life skills areas, such as leadership, discipline and mentoring in general). The academic award was given to 11 scholars, most of whom were the best in their classes at their schools. The Most Outstanding Scholars Awards were presented to the four winners of the votes, two winners (boy and girl) from Primary School, and two (boy and girl) from Secondary School.
The scholars who received academic awards with their classes on brackets are; Upendo Akyoo (Pre-class), Erick Yona (1), Emmanuel John (2), Faidha Shaban (4), David Daniel (5), Miriam Daniel (6), Joyce Elipokea (7), Dickson Simon (Form 1), Joachim Filbert (Form Two), Salvatore Seth (Form 3) and Richard Augustino (Form 6). The Most Outstanding Scholar Awards went to Veronica Pascal and David Daniel, for Primary School Category and by, Vaileth Palangyo and Richard Augustino for Secondary School Category.
These scholars majestically—and with jubilation from fellow scholars, guardians and TFFT Staff—climbed the stage to receive their awards and shake hands with the Country Director of The Foundation For Tomorrow. The event ended with group photos of the award winners with TFFT Staff Team, also with all guardians and finally with all the scholars. Indeed it was a day of celebrations and motivation to put forth even more effort so that next year they will be the ones too to receive the awards.