Soit Sambu Secondary School

We have visited Soit Sambu Secondary School a number of times over the last few years, and we have all been impressed by the students, teachers, and particularly the headmaster. The headmaster and the community deeply care about the school, and have worked very hard to build enough facilities for the school. We built a girls’ dormitory there in 2013 because 160 girls were living in the space for 48. It was really exciting to open the dormitory and allow the girls to have more space. In 2014, the headmaster of Soit Sambu Secondary had raised enough money to build a dining hall for the school, and it finally opened in early 2015. Shortly after it opened, we were terribly saddened to learn that one of the boys’ dormitories burned down in an accidental fire. Luckily, no students were injured, but the dormitory was completely destroyed. The boys have had to move into the dining hall until a new dorm can be built.

FoTZC plans to build a new boys’ dormitory at Soit Sambu in 2016. We hope you’ll help us give the boys somewhere of their own to live!

        The former boy's dormitory

        Temporary Living Space in the Dining Hall

Dispensary: New Video

The medical dispensary (small health clinic) has now been open in Sukenya for almost three months, and the number of patients visiting is much higher than expected, which is wonderful! We are thrilled that the community is using the clinic so much. This is one of the biggest projects in our history; it gives the Maasai who live in this area a health facility they can get to without having to walk 13-plus miles. Imagine walking that far if you were sick or in labor!

We thought you might enjoy this short video about the new dispensary. Please let us know what you think.

The Dispensary is Open!

Five years after the Sukenya women asked us for help to build a dispensary, it is open, staffed, and seeing patients! We couldn’t be prouder of this achievement. The new facility is providing care to residents of five villages; these people used to have to walk 13 miles to reach the nearest health facility. Now they are able to access care much more easily.

The dispensary currently has a staff of two, and in the first three weeks of it being open, the staff has seen 623 patients and delivered three healthy babies! In addition, all patients are getting health education when they arrive for treatment. As a comparison, other dispensaries generally see 200 patients each month; 623 in three weeks is incredible!

This is our biggest project to date, and we are thrilled to hear that so many members of the community have already benefited from it.

Garden Party and Benefit

On Tuesday night, about a hundred friends of FoTZC came together to celebrate community development projects and to kick off COCOBA (community conservation banking) in the Loliondo area. We had a silent auction including paintings and paper art by three Tanzania artists we know, as well as a stunning selection of African masks from the Private Collection of the late Dr. Farish Jenkins. We also had Thomson Safarisstaff members selling jewelry and other beaded handicrafts made by Tanzanian women.

The main attraction was our panel of speakers, which included Dr. Ken Dial, a Conservation Biologist at the University of Montana, Daniel Yamat, a Maasai elder from Tanzania, and video interviews with Atwitye Makwetta, the Dean of Business at Mount Meru University. WBUR’s Tom Ashbrook led a lively discussion on empowering women in Tanzania, and how conservation and tourism both play a role in this type of development.

We’ve included one of the video clips of Atwitye speaking about women in Tanzania so you can get a feel for the issues that the panel addressed.

ABOUT

FOTZC is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organization registered in Watertown, MA. FOTZC also accepts donation of securities. Please contact info@fotzc.org for guidance on making this type of donation.