Our vision is to educate girls from nursery school through secondary school in a Christian English-medium alternative educational system to enable them to become economically independent and future leaders of Tanzania.
Our Motivation
There are four factors present in the current Tanzanian educational system that are motivation for our sisters to want to start a school in Tanzania:
The educational picture for females in Tanzania is grim. Few surpass the equivalent of an eighth grade education. From a young age, a girl is taught that she is not as bright as a boy, especially in science and math. She is many times kept at home to fetch water, cook, and clean, while the boys are favored to attend school. Even if she is a capable student, because of her “usefulness” at home, she is not chosen by the family to attend secondary school. In most secondary co-ed classrooms throughout Tanzania, boys make up 85% of the student body. The few girls present cower in the midst of their predominantly male counterparts.
In Tanzania, Swahili, the national language, is used in classrooms in Primary schools. Suddenly, at the beginning of Secondary School, English is used for teaching. For many reasons, this system is not working well, and the Tanzanian government is reevaluating its validity. In the meantime, we believe that while Swahili is very important to learn, the students need an English medium education from their youth. This will give them the edge they need to attend university and perhaps seek employment outside their country if necessary.
In order to maintain the school, it will be necessary to have students who can pay school fees. Nevertheless, because there are now over 1,000,000 orphans in Tanzania due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we are dedicated to having 30% of our boarders be orphans in need.
Lack of education leads to economic dependence, which is a huge source of stress for many women. If the situation at home is abusive, the woman has “no way out.” In some cases the husband “kicks” his wife out of the home and marries someone else, with no responsibility from the government to pay child support. She is left helpless to support herself and/or her children.
Literacy Statistics
definition: age 15 and over can read and write Kiswahili (Swahili), English, or Arabic
total population: 78.2%
male: 85.9%
female: 70.7% (2003)
from: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/tz
Objectives
To help female youth acquire the education necessary to become economically independent.
To assist orphans who have lost one or both parents with educational needs, especially in this time of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
To facilitate the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development of female youth in the Bukoba area and in Tanzania at large.
To help female students develop skills and talents, equipping them with the knowledge, maturity, and confidence to pursue their dreams.
To initiate the teaching of English in nursery school, and continue intensively through Primary and Secondary Schools, thus giving our students the competitive edge they need to enter University.
To equip our students with other skills besides book knowledge, including home economics (i.e. sewing, crafts, gardening….)
To protect female youth from physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse from their relatives, guardians, and even teachers.
To assist students who are born HIV Positive to have access to the medical care (i.e. drug treatment, counseling) they need and deserve.
To create employment in the Bukoba area.
Beneficiaries
Families in this area will have access to a school that is within reasonable walking distance.
Unskilled laborers will acquire employment (i.e. cooks, builders, etc..)
Skilled laborers (i.e. teachers, administrators, etc.) will be gainfully employed according to their different qualifications and talents.
The orphans who have suffered mistreatment will enter a peaceful environment in the boarding school.
The mother country at large will be the happiest with their citizens because of the English language skills that the children will have acquired from the school.
There are four factors present in the current Tanzanian educational system that are motivation for our sisters to want to start a school in Tanzania:
