Projects in Tanzania
Introducing our new project
In 2009 Wishing Well Lead Trustee Jason O’Flaherty flew out to Tanzania to visit Shimbwe, a village based at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. We have been thinking about moving into Africa for some time and feel that now our projects in Romania are at a fairly stable point in their development now is the right time to take on some new projects. We were invited to the Shimbwe village by another small charity working in the area, they have helped bring water to the village and set up the village’s only secondary school. Our involvement in the village is going to be in supporting one of the four Primary schools. We will be working with Shimbwe Chini Primary school. Out of the 296 children that attend this school only 1 in 4 move on to secondary, for the vast majority of the children once they have completed Primary school that is the end of their education. Only the brightest few children are able to acquire free scholarships to go on to the secondary school. For those that do not achieve the grade, unless their parents can afford to pay to send them off to a private school (which is not normally the case) the children just end up working the land.
At Shimbwe school there is a teacher/pupil ration of 1/40, which is better than the government targets of 1/45 but still with so many children to just 1 teacher it is very difficult to help all of the children to reach their full potential. Many of the children come from desperately poor families and performing well at school is their only chance of improving their lives, it is the only way they will be able to get a job that will provide them with a suitable income. We have identified 50 children within the school in need of extra support. Children from the poorest families that we can give a little support to in order for them to meet those all important grades. We will be combining all of our resources from both the UK and Romania to make this project a success and implementing the same successful model we have been using in Slatina for the past 6 years. In September we hope to be able to issue all of the children most in need with note books and schools resources ready for the new academic year. We are going to be paying for the poorest children to receive free school meals and we will be working with the school to improve the overall classroom environment.
In 2010, we sent a larger team to Tanzania consisting of both UK & Romanian volunteers. During this trip we totally refurbished 2 classrooms as well as deliver some other educational activities and provided some much needed educational resources to the school. We will continue to build upon this project.
In 2009 Wishing Well Lead Trustee Jason O’Flaherty flew out to Tanzania to visit Shimbwe, a village based at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. We have been thinking about moving into Africa for some time and feel that now our projects in Romania are at a fairly stable point in their development now is the right time to take on some new projects. We were invited to the Shimbwe village by another small charity working in the area, they have helped bring water to the village and set up the village’s only secondary school. Our involvement in the village is going to be in supporting one of the four Primary schools. We will be working with Shimbwe Chini Primary school. Out of the 296 children that attend this school only 1 in 4 move on to secondary, for the vast majority of the children once they have completed Primary school that is the end of their education. Only the brightest few children are able to acquire free scholarships to go on to the secondary school. For those that do not achieve the grade, unless their parents can afford to pay to send them off to a private school (which is not normally the case) the children just end up working the land.
At Shimbwe school there is a teacher/pupil ration of 1/40, which is better than the government targets of 1/45 but still with so many children to just 1 teacher it is very difficult to help all of the children to reach their full potential. Many of the children come from desperately poor families and performing well at school is their only chance of improving their lives, it is the only way they will be able to get a job that will provide them with a suitable income. We have identified 50 children within the school in need of extra support. Children from the poorest families that we can give a little support to in order for them to meet those all important grades. We will be combining all of our resources from both the UK and Romania to make this project a success and implementing the same successful model we have been using in Slatina for the past 6 years. In September we hope to be able to issue all of the children most in need with note books and schools resources ready for the new academic year. We are going to be paying for the poorest children to receive free school meals and we will be working with the school to improve the overall classroom environment.
In 2010, we sent a larger team to Tanzania consisting of both UK & Romanian volunteers. During this trip we totally refurbished 2 classrooms as well as deliver some other educational activities and provided some much needed educational resources to the school. We will continue to build upon this project.
