Germana James

Her father died in 1997, and her mother not long after – both from AIDS. Her father’s second wife also died of AIDS. Germana had four sisters, all of them were born HIV positive, and all have since died with AIDS. The only surviving member of the family, apart from Germana, is her elder brother. Germana herself was born with HIV and is still HIV positive – she is taking drugs for this, which she hopes will prevent her from developing AIDS. When her parents died, she was put in an orphanage by a German priest. When he discovered that she was HIV positive (at the age of 7), he moved her to another orphanage that was just for HIV/AIDS sufferers. He supported her through her secondary education, but when this was completed she was not allowed to stay at the orphanage, and had to go and live with her brother and survive on her own. She achieved a Credit pass mark in her secondary school final examinations, and was given a place at Mringa School to study A’ Levels, but was not able to accept this place because she could not afford the fees and other costs. However, The Meserani Project stepped in right at the eleventh hour, and she started her A’ Level studies at Mringa Secondary, Arusha, in July 2015. She studied Geography, History and Economics.

Germana’s sponsor throughout her two years of A’ Level studies were Andrew Lee from Stockton on Tees, who works as an architect in York, and his fiancee Natalie.

In October 2017 Germana was selected by the government to study a BA degree in Business and Economics at Moshi Co-operative University. Her sponsors for her three years at university are John Bate, former Head Teacher at Acklam Grange School, and his wife Joan. Because of Germana’s extremely difficult home situation, Andrew and Natalie are contributing additional sponsorship for her three years at university.