Education Tanzania, United Republic of Project #9626

Provide a school for 1,000 children in Tanzania

by Girls Education International

Provide a school for 1,000 children in Tanzania

Project Report | Nov 6, 2015
A Final Report on Amahoro Secondary School

By Rai Farrelly | Co-Founder, Project Wezesha

Scholarship Students

Dear Project Wezesha Supporters,

After years of fundraising and some very generous support from all of you, Amahoro Secondary School opened its doors in January, 2015. The opening ceremony was a fabulous event with music, dancing, singing, speeches, laughing, honoring, and hugging!

But most importantly, there was a school opening!

In January 2015, school officially began. 75 first year secondary students joined their peers in classes with new and excited teachers. The surrounding community was thrilled to welcome this school to Mgaraganza. Children from the lakeside villages of Mtanga and Kigalie would now only walk one hour to school instead of two! The children of Mgaraganza village would only have to walk about 10-20 minutes, rather than an hour and fifteen minutes - as they did when attending school in Kagongo Village.

Through our joint efforts, we were able to make this happen! We constructed 16 rooms - 4 quads with space for classrooms, offices and laboratories. With the help of our rockstar donors Shelmina and Minaz, we also built state of the art latrines for the school.

Is the job done? No. There is still finishing work to be completed on some of the classrooms.

Is our job done? Yes. We believe in honoring our commitments, and so we have. The local and regional governments and the Ministry of Education have made commitments to continue the final touches on this school until it is ready to host not only Form 1 students, but cohorts of Form 2, Form 3, and Form 4.

Did Project Wezesha make any other commitments? Well ... maybe.

In 2015 the Prime Minister of Tanzania mandated that all schools have laboratories to better support the development of education in STEM fields. In particular, all secondary schools must have labs to explore chemistry, biology and physics through hands-on practice. His goal is too ambitious and likely will not be realized - um, actually, it wasn't realized. He wanted all ward secondary schools to be equipped with labs by May 2015. This might have been doable in certain developed and wealthy regions of the country (i.e., Dar es Salaam), but not in the majority of the country.

Project Wezesha plans to help the local government in Mgaraganza village as they construct labs to develop a community of creative and critical thinkers who can reach high school and pursue academic interests in any field they want - including science and technology!

So, what's next?

We are closing this campaign and want to thank all of you for your fabulous support over the years. We invite you to continue supporting our efforts in Mgaraganza, Tanzania through our newly launched campaign: Provide Science Labs for Tanzania Secondary Schools.

You can continue to check in with us and find out how our scholarship program and science lab campaigns are doing by visiting our website or by visiting us on Facebook.

'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding. -Alice Walker

If 'Thank You' is a prayer, then we are always praying and you are in our prayers. It seems impossible to adequately express our gratitude for your participation in this journey! But we hope that you'll continue to venture on with us.

Asante Sana!

With love,

Rai Farrelly and Lucas Lameck
Co-Founders, Project Wezesha

Lucas Lamek

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Jul 24, 2015
Amahoro Secondary School Update_July 2015

By Rai Farrelly | Co-Founder, Project Wezesha

Meeting with Parents

Dear Project Wezesha Supporters,

Since our big bash to open Amahoro Secondary School in January, school has been in full swing! The first term ended in May and the students enjoyed a summer break in June. Classes started back up in July. The teachers and villagers are thrilled about the school - parents never imagined they would have a secondary school right in the village.

Lucas met with some of the parents recently (see pictures) to discuss ways in which the parents can best support their children to be successful in school. Among the ideas they shared, parents are committed to making time after school for students to study. They are also going to make sure their children get up and out the door each day to arrive at classes on time. (You know how hard it can be to get teens out of bed! In Tanzania they're up with the roosters, but getting the sandals to the sand for the walk to school can be a challenge!)

The teachers are grateful for the opportunity to be teaching in such a lovely, tree-rich environment. There is always a breeze up at Amahoro and the views of the surrounding hills and forests of Gombe are stunning! But, most of the teachers are either staying with families in the village or commuting from town (not a short distance!). This set-up may ultimately result in disconent, unmotivated teachers or resignations. Our next initiative will be to work with the village and town governments to fast track the building of teachers' houses near the school.

In addition, we are planning to launch a campaign to help the school finish up its laboratories so that they have the mandatory labs and equipment to properly teach Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Keep an eye out for information about those campaigns in a forthcoming update.

As part of the Girls Education International expansion into Tanzania, we have 15 girls studying at Amahoro Secondary School. Project Wezesha continues to support all students in our scholarship program by paying for additional support classes (what they refer to as 'tuition') throughout the year. In this way, our students can stay after school and work with teachers to really dig deep into the subjects that present them with the most challenges academically.

My next trip to Tanzania will be December, at which time I'll be identifying teachers who wish to be involved in a two-way teacher training program with volunteer student teachers from other countries. It will be an ambitious project, but it's the area through which I think we'll see the most impact on education. Walls and books only do so much - the teachers really create the learning opportunities and if they're not motivated, prepared, inspired, and supported then things continue - status quo. We prefer to move education forward to ensure that more of our students reach high school, college and beyond!

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Rai Farrelly and Lucas Lameck
Co-Founders, Project Wezesha

Brainstorming with Parents

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Mar 3, 2015
Amahoro Secondary School is Now Open!

By Rai Farrelly | Co-Founder, Project Wezesha

District Commissioner, Mr Maneno

Greetings Project Wezesha Supporters!

This is sure to be my favorite update so far. After four years of fundraising, planning, negotiating, (struggling), and succeeding - we are so excited to share the news that Amahoro Secondary School is open! There are 70 Form 1 students currently studying in our completed classrooms! Of this cohort, 15 are newly added girls for our Girls Education International Scholarship Tanzania program! We really couldn't be more happy, excited, and hopeful!

In January 2015, I traveled with two friends to the Kigoma Region. For the first few days, we met with leaders at the district level - planning the opening party, budgeting for the festivities, negotiating PW's contribution and the government's contribution, and much more. We visited the site of the school and met with the enthusiastic and proud new Head Master, Mr. Kumenya, as well as the local village leaders who have been working with us since the beginning. Village 'Diwani' (Chief) Patrick Maganga was on hand all week - preparing the final details for the opening, including finishing the latrines, building steps into the classrooms, and staying on top of official business (organizing entertainment groups, arranging the schedule of events, staying in close contact with district leaders, etc.). He is a model of what true leadership should look like! Thank you, Diwani Maganga!!

One of the final hurdles to overcome prior to the opening of the school was completion of the latrines. I'll admit - I was very impressed when I finally saw them! Our top supporters, Shelmina and Minaz are responsible for the completion of the latrines. (Thank you, Shelmina and Minaz!!) The latrines come complete with porceline base toilets and a state of the art system for storing waste - which will last up to 70 years before it has to be cleared out by truck! Not just your average hole in the ground! Of course, our fabulous builder Isaya Lameck brought his A-Game to finish them, and his crew of laborers put in many hours digging deeper and deeper through very rocky soil. It was one of the toughest parts of the overall job!

The party was a smash! There were entertainment groups from the village and neighboring towns. They brought in an MC, a DJ, and set up a big tent for the VIP guests. Parties like this are a very big deal for villages and they let it show!

There was a theatrical song and dance performance, dancing by youth hip hop groups, and even some dancing by our current scholarship students. Interspersed with the entertainment were speeches by the village and district leaders. The village exective officer read a speech prepared by Lucas which outlined the timeline of the project, acknowledged the many contributors - near and far, and ultimately celebrated the big opening day!

The District Commissioner, Ramadhani Maneno gave a big speech about the promise of the future with education at the helm. He told the crowd of over 1,000 that I would be back in the future with volunteer teachers of English, Science, and Math to help build capacity ... no pressure! (Any volunteers?) This summer, funding permitting, I plan to return with 4-5 of my MA TEFL student teachers who will complete their English as a Foreign Language teaching internship in local primary and secondary classrooms. If this pilot goes well, we expect great future teacher collaborations in the future!

After all the dance, music, and speeches - they revealed the beautiful foundation plaques on the wall of the school. And then - the feast! All villagers and VIP guests were treated to a celebration lunch. Lucas showed that his skills even extend to being an event caterer and food server! He was tireless in his efforts to make sure this entire celebration was a huge success. By the end of the day, needless to say - we were all an exhausted group of planners and supporters!

But enough reading ... take a little break from whatever else you have to do right now and watch this video mash-up of the celebration!

Thank you very much to everyone who has collaborated, contributed, and cheered along the way! We'll continue to work with the leaders and the headmaster to continue this school's development - building laboratories, finishing additional classroom spaces, and of course - getting the football pitch ready for matches! So - we'll take you along for the journey for as long as you'll let us!

Asante sana,

Rai Farrelly and Lucas Lameck
Co-founders, Project Wezesha
www.ProjectWezesha.org

New Latrines

Isaya Getting it Done!

Entertainment Group

Links:

School Opening Celebration Video

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