EDUCATION

COMPLETED PROJECTS:
General costs:
1 building with 3 classrooms ~ $35,000
Dormitory, latrines and showers for 120 students ~ $100,000
2-in-1 teachers' house for 2 families or 6 teachers ~ $53,000

3 Robanda Primary Classrooms, 2022
3 Mondorosi Classrooms, 2020
Funded by Brian McDonald

With education at a premium, classrooms are regularly filled well beyond their capacity, overwhelming teachers and making it extremely challenging for students to pay attention and learn. Upon completion of these six new classrooms, the Tanzanian government provided additional teachers, which means significantly more students in the region have a chance to learn and grow.

Soit Sambu Girls' Dormitory, 2022
Robanda Secondary Boys' Dormitory, 2020
Soit Sambu Secondary Boys’ Dormitory, 2016

Education is a pathway to opportunity; it changes a child's future. The addition of a dormitory eliminates long dangerous treks to and from school. This greatly improves attendance, reduces drop-out rates and increases graduation numbers from 20%-90%. An education can transform a child’s future.

2 Houses for Teachers, 2019

Housing is an essential component needed to provide a quality education. The government won't send certified professionals unless housing is available. Adequate housing was desperately needed to meet the growing student population in Robanda and at Haymu Primary. New housing enabled qualified teachers to live and work in these remote, rural communities. Having teachers close by is especially beneficial for the students as it allows them to receive tutoring or extra help. Education creates a promising future for these students.

Sukenya Primary School

Set on a vast plain in Loliondo, Sukenya Primary School serves an increasing number of Maasai children in the greater Sukenya area. Before we built our first 2-in-1 teachers' house at Sukenya in 2010, the school only had four teachers for 364 students. After building our first 2-in-1 teachers’ house, the school was able to increase those numbers to eight teachers for 400 students, which still fell short of what they required. In 2016 we completed construction on our second 2-in-1 teachers’ house, giving the school adequate staff housing to meet a growing need.

Robanda Secondary School

Sitting on the western edge of the Serengeti, Robanda opened a secondary school with boarding facilities for girls in 2017. Before, girls from Robanda attended school 45 km away in Mugumu. The school in Mugumu did not have dormitories, so many of the girls stayed in hostels and ended up dropping out of school or getting pregnant. The community started construction on a secondary school in 2011, and we helped them open their doors in early 2017.

Ganako Secondary School - Michelas’s Room

Michela’s Room, or more formally, the Michela Harriman Dining and Community Hall, is the beautiful centerpiece of Ganako Secondary School. As envisioned by the Harriman family, Michela’s Room serves not only as a dining hall but also as a space for meetings and events for the broader community.

The most critical part of the infrastructure plan was to drill a borehole to provide the school with sufficient water. This was completed in 2017.

Children have more time for their studies and are avoiding illnesses that previously meant falling behind their classmates. According to Joseph Ladislaus, a chemistry teacher at Ganako Secondary School, “Water from the boreholes helps maintain vegetable gardens that supplement school lunches and keep students healthier. Having a permanent source of water has greatly improved performance; we are now ranked 17 out of over 600 schools in the country."

Orkiu Primary School

Orkiu Primary School is set up on a windswept hill at almost 8,000 feet elevation. When we first visited Orkiu, they requested a teachers' house so they could have enough teachers for their rapidly growing student body. The second time we visited, the student body had grown so much that they only had half of the classrooms that they needed; half of the students sat outside in the cold while the other half were in class. The community finished two classrooms that they had started building, and we completed construction on two classrooms in 2015, so the school now has six classrooms

Oloipiri Primary School

Oloipiri Primary School was started in 1978 with 23 students; today, the school has over 500 students in just six classrooms. Many of these classrooms were in poor condition. There were not enough teachers’ houses at the school, so they only had nine teachers. The local community contributed funds to build classrooms and teachers’ houses, but due to droughts, they were not able to complete construction on these projects. The school, community, and local officials requested FoTZC assistance to build classrooms and teachers’ housing. FoTZC completed construction on a 2-in-1 teachers’ house (a duplex) at Oloipiri in 2015.

Nainokanoka Primary School

In 2001, Thomson Safaris took a number of families to visit Nainokanoka Primary School. The visitors taught impromptu lessons and became deeply attached to the school and its mission of spreading education to uplift Maasai communities. FOTZC contributed funds to rehabilitate classrooms and, a few years later, constructed two additional classrooms. Nainokanoka is very remote, and they needed to provide housing before the government would assign new teachers to the school, so in 2012, we built a 2-in-1 teachers’ house at Nainokanoka. The dedication ceremony for the teachers' housing was one of the most well-attended we've been to - the community is very dedicated to this school!