Mwaji Secondary School

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Unlike primary school, secondary school is not free to students in Tanzania, making it cost-prohibitive to any orphans who wish to continue their education beyond the 6th grade level (Standard 7).

In the summer of 2008, in a small mountainous village in Western Tanzania on land donated by the community, village leaders built a secondary school out of sticks and thatch for the area orphans. At first, eighty-four orphans sat in shifts, shoulder-to-shoulder upon benches hewn from logs as they listened intently to lessons taught by volunteer teachers.

Knowing that they needed help, village leaders approached Orphans Africa and proposed construction of a more permanent school. Impressed with their initiative and passion for helping the orphans, OA has agreed to undertake the construction of the Mwaji Secondary School.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Since the Fall of 2008, Orphans Africa, in coordination with the village leaders of Bujela, has accomplished the following:

Completion of one permanent brick classroom, to include cement floor, plastered and painted walls, metal guards and screens on the windows, a locking  steel door, and a 20-year tin roof

Student desks and chairs for the new classroom

A second brick classroom nearing completion

Installation of water well; the well is open to the community during non-school hours

Completion of a 2-hole teacher’s toilet

Completion of 8-hole boys’, and 8-hole girls’ toilets

Form Two students (approximately 8th grade) sat for their national examinations in November

Funding for textbooks

Salaries for teachers

130 orphan students in attendance, all with uniforms.

    GOALS:

    Funds are still needed for more classrooms, desks, supplies, dormitories, headmaster’s cottage, kitchen, and dining hall.

    SELF-SUSTAINABILITY:

    All OA schools are operated according to a model of self-sustainability. Meaning, that once the school is operational and fully registered with the government, it is capable of supporting itself and OA can move on to the next project. OA’s model combines tuition-paying students with fully-dependent orphan students. Tuition received from parents of non-orphan students cover the costs of teachers’ salaries, school operation, plus the room and board of the orphans. Also, by combining non-orphans with orphans, social stigmas and prejudices are reduced as opposed to being reinforced through orphan-only schools.