Ngyeku Primary School

Ngyeku Primary School is located in Usa River, a growing community on the outskirts of Arusha. FoTZC first came to know Ngyeku because of its close proximity to Sakila Primary School, where FoTZC completed its very first projects. Thomson Safaris guests frequently visited Ngyeku before visiting Sakila, giving them an accurate picture of what schools looked like before and after FoTZC support. We soon began to partner with Ngyeku, as the students and energetic headmaster had impressed the Board and our donors. We constructed four classrooms between 2003 and 2007, and in 2008 we purchased textbooks for the school. In 2010 we constructed a new classroom, a cooking facility, repainted a classroom that was not being used, and repaired a storage space for grain, freeing up a classroom that had previously been used for storage. A total of three classrooms – one new and two reclaimed – were added to Ngyeku in the 2010 project.

Recognizing how daily nutritious meals improve students’ ability to learn, the school requested a kitchen area as well as high-efficiency stoves to cook lunches. “Our students will be better able to focus on their studies and succeed,” said Ngyeku’s headmaster, Peter Medutieki. “This seems like something small but it will go a long way.” The cooking facility has been a huge success. The stoves use about one third of the firewood that was used for open fires, and the cooks are able to prepare food for the entire student body in one batch because of the size of the new stoves; before the cooking facility was constructed they had to have four fires going with two batches cooked on each fire – a total of eight batches! The stoves vent into a chimney, reducing the amount of smoke the cooks are exposed to during the day. 

Completed Projects at Ngyeku

Four Classrooms: Completed 2003-2007
Purchase Textbooks: Completed 2008
One Classroom: Completed 2010
Cooking Facility: Completed 2010
Secure Storeroom for Grain: Completed 2010