We went back to Compassion Orphanage today to talk more in depth to the people that work there. I know I already covered Compassion in a previous post, but I found out a lot more information. It’s a really cool place!
Quick Facts
Founded in Tanzania: 1999
Sakina Center Founded: 2001
No. of Centers in Arusha: 7
No. of Students (2009): 279
No. of Staff: 4
No. of Committee Members: 7 (3 yr. term, replace 2 members every year)
No. of Bible Study Teachers: 9-12
Key Contacts
Program Coordinator: Moses Mollel
Social Worker: Joyce Mmbaga
Health Worker: Judicate Mathias
Accountant: Veronica
Pastor: Noel Urio
Operations
Every staff member has a daily, weekly, and monthly plan. Twice a month, the staff meets with 7 committee members, who are church members at Compassion.
Compassion keeps a folder for every child for their health and education records. They also give a folder to every child to keep at home for letters from their sponsors.
Every staff member at Compassion must visit all of the children’s houses and schools every year, with the social worker visiting those houses with more serious issues. They check the home environment and to make sure the child still has their folder.
In a typical week, the accountant goes to secondary schools to pay school fees. The health worker takes children to the hospital. The social worker does house visits while the coordinator registers new children. They all spend time helping the children write letters to their sponsors.
Every Friday, they have a meeting to give progress reports and evaluate their action plan.
Registration
When a child comes in to register, they visit their homes to look at the home situation. They typically register those who are orphans or have a poor home situation. They take pictures of newly registered children and send them off to the main office, which then records the new applicant and sends it off to the world office in Colorado Springs. The headquarters is responsible for matching up sponsors with children. Children can wait up to 5 months to find a sponsor, but typically wait about 3 months before they get assigned a sponsor. If a child gets sick before they find a sponsor, Compassion still takes care of their health issues.
Letter Writing
Every Wednesday, the staff picks up sponsor letters from the main office in Arusha and distributes them to the children. The children then must write a letter back.
Compassion has a special letter writing form where the letters are written in English or Swahili and then translated into the other language so that each party can understand the other.
How often the children write depends on how often their sponsor writes, but there are three times when every child is required to write a letter: Christmas, Easter, and school holiday.
Resources
In terms of education, the resources available to the students depend on the specific sponsor and what the sponsor plans to fund. However, most sponsors fund at least transportation, textbooks, and school fees.
Compassion sponsors a safari every year to the national parks and pays for all of the students to go.
Compassion also has some health related books, which are kept on site.
Education
Education is a very integral part of Compassion, whether through international sponsorships, health education, bible study, or supplemental classes.
The staff goes to all of the schools and collect attendance records every month and grades after every term from the headteachers. If a student has poor performance, they also pay for tutorial lessons. Currently, Compassion’s oldest students are in form IV.
The staff keeps a completion plan for each child, which is updated annually. Compassion will only sponsor students until age 22. The completion plan keeps information such as their records, ambitions and what they hope to achieve with their education.
On Saturdays, they have 9-12 teachers teach bible study in addition to health seminars, welding, carpentry, tailoring, and cooking.
Enrichment
Sponsors sometimes come to visit the children, which is a great opportunity to learn about new cultures.
At Compassion, the staff holds spiritual camps. They also coordinate sports teams (netball, football, volleyball) which compete with the other 6 centers in Arusha. Choirs from all of the centers coordinate joint concerts. Finally, the headteachers at the schools help with organizing education competitions, such as exams, spelling bees, debates, writing competitions, and even history bees.
Health
Every Saturday they have health education for ages 3-16. They also have adolescent stage lessons which teach children 10 and above how to avoid risky behaviors.
If a student gets sick, Compassion pays for all of the children’s health needs and accompanies them to the hospital. They have a special treatment book with the child’s picture in it that they bring to the doctor at the hospital to make notes about the student.
Compassion prepares monthly disease and prevalence reports for the main compassion branch in Arusha. In addition to recording a child’s illness in his or her records, they also use monthly treatment records for internal use to record when a child gets sick. They record details such as the child’s complaint, what the hospital treated them for, and how much it cost.
In March and September they do health screenings of all of the children with a parent present. They check whether the child has access to: water, a clean latrine, a medical facility, and a pharmacy. They also check eyes, ears, head, nose, teeth, skin, hygiene, signs of infection, conduct problems, activity level problems, signs of parasites, clinical signs of malnutrition, and nutrition intake over three screenings. The health worker may also decide to refer a child for treatment.
Future Plans
Future Plans: They hope to have a computer program as well as a form V and VI and university program. Their oldest children are in form IV, so they hope to continue supporting them all the way through university. Other compassion branches have students all the way through university.
Vocab word of the day:
Kusoma – to read
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Home Visits
Today we went back to Burka Primary School. Since we interviewed 10 students, the best way to assess need was to physically visit their houses and see their home environment. This was Emanueli and Irene’s idea, so I trusted that visiting homes was culturally appropriate. I could tell all of them were definitely poor, but Emanueli and Irene really knew what to look for to assess the different levels of need. They had no problem ranking them against each other.
The second girl had a particularly compelling story. She lives in a one room square mud hut with her 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister, surrounded by banana trees and a few meager crops. After both of her parents died, her oldest brother kept the family together and cared for them. He only finished primary school and never got the opportunity to go to secondary school. He now shines shoes to earn money for the family.
The second oldest brother had an international sponsor to go to secondary school but lost his sponsorship after he didn’t have shoes to go to school and his grades dropped. He wrote a letter to the local government petitioning them to ask the national government for help to go to school and got a government sponsorship to finish secondary school. Now he is in Form IV, preparing for his national exams, and taking care of his younger sisters, with ambitions to go to university.
The applicant, a current standard 7 student in primary school, hopes to go to secondary school. Right now, primary schools are on holiday, but hold remedial classes that students who can afford the 300 TSH a day (less than .30 USD) attend. Today, she stayed home to wash clothes, clean house, and make meals for her family, but first and foremost didn’t attend remedial classes because she didn’t have the 300 TSH. Maybe tomorrow, she said.
After visiting her home, we looked at her grades and saw that, with an A average, she was one of the top students in her class.
Health Assessment: We are starting to review the objectives for the health assessment of the community that we will start in two weeks. We have a data collection manual that is very useful and helpful. However, it has a lot of words that Emanueli and Irene don’t understand. We independently read chapter 1 and then reviewed it together. We spent about 1.5 hours discussing data collection, clarifying hard words and practicing with different examples. I’m glad we are doing this now!
I also showed Irene and Clemens, one of my other brothers, the typing programs on the laptops (which were donated to Sustain Foundation). Learning “home row” brought back memories of elementary school computer class.
Word of the day:
Ndiyo - yes
The second girl had a particularly compelling story. She lives in a one room square mud hut with her 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister, surrounded by banana trees and a few meager crops. After both of her parents died, her oldest brother kept the family together and cared for them. He only finished primary school and never got the opportunity to go to secondary school. He now shines shoes to earn money for the family.
The second oldest brother had an international sponsor to go to secondary school but lost his sponsorship after he didn’t have shoes to go to school and his grades dropped. He wrote a letter to the local government petitioning them to ask the national government for help to go to school and got a government sponsorship to finish secondary school. Now he is in Form IV, preparing for his national exams, and taking care of his younger sisters, with ambitions to go to university.
The applicant, a current standard 7 student in primary school, hopes to go to secondary school. Right now, primary schools are on holiday, but hold remedial classes that students who can afford the 300 TSH a day (less than .30 USD) attend. Today, she stayed home to wash clothes, clean house, and make meals for her family, but first and foremost didn’t attend remedial classes because she didn’t have the 300 TSH. Maybe tomorrow, she said.
After visiting her home, we looked at her grades and saw that, with an A average, she was one of the top students in her class.
Health Assessment: We are starting to review the objectives for the health assessment of the community that we will start in two weeks. We have a data collection manual that is very useful and helpful. However, it has a lot of words that Emanueli and Irene don’t understand. We independently read chapter 1 and then reviewed it together. We spent about 1.5 hours discussing data collection, clarifying hard words and practicing with different examples. I’m glad we are doing this now!
I also showed Irene and Clemens, one of my other brothers, the typing programs on the laptops (which were donated to Sustain Foundation). Learning “home row” brought back memories of elementary school computer class.
Word of the day:
Ndiyo - yes
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Church and Internet
Today I went to Emanueli’s church, the same church I went to last week, which I didn’t talk about in the blog. We are going to be doing a focus group with church members though, so it might be interesting to learn how church here works. Everyone has to bring their own hymnal and bible. There are 3 pastors and 1 new visiting pastor every week. Before the service, everyone gets their offering envelopes from a table area outside. The women all dress up and wear kitenges, the traditional Tanzanian clothing, and even younger boys wear oversized suits if they have one. During the service, we got up four times to walk to the front of the church to give offerings. The pastor was cracking everyone up during the sermon and I really wished I knew Swahili. Last week there was an adult choir that was very engaging. This week, the children’s choir sang, which was just as entertaining.
I noticed this week that all of the women sat on the left side and the men sat on the right side (with the exception of me sitting with Emanueli). We sit close to the front and always come early, so I never noticed until I looked behind me this week during the service. Emanueli said he doesn’t know why that this church does it every week, but it’s just specific to this church.
Last week, there was an auction during the service to raise money for the church. They auctioned off 1 item: a goat, which went for 23,000 TSH (About 20 USD). This week, there was an auction, but it took over half an hour while they auctioned off bags of fruit (a bunch of bananas here, 5 oranges there), soap, milk, and other donations that people had brought. During the auction, the choir would sometimes break into a song type chant about whatever was being auctioned off to encourage people to bid.
After church, Emanueli, Irene, and I met the Sakina Scholars at an internet café and taught them how to use internet and email. We signed them all up for gmail accounts. It was really fun! It was kind of crazy with all 18 of us in the internet café at once and other customers trying to use computers. It was really awesome though because the kids who had been there the longest started helping those that had just arrived. It was neat to see them working together and helping each other out. Then they started emailing each other just for fun. Some great teamwork. I wanted to get some pictures of them learning to use the computer, so I gave the camera to some of the scholars who were waiting and they helped me document the occasion. They were so excited!! We are going to go back to practice in a few weeks.
vocab word of the day:
Fundi – tailor
I noticed this week that all of the women sat on the left side and the men sat on the right side (with the exception of me sitting with Emanueli). We sit close to the front and always come early, so I never noticed until I looked behind me this week during the service. Emanueli said he doesn’t know why that this church does it every week, but it’s just specific to this church.
Last week, there was an auction during the service to raise money for the church. They auctioned off 1 item: a goat, which went for 23,000 TSH (About 20 USD). This week, there was an auction, but it took over half an hour while they auctioned off bags of fruit (a bunch of bananas here, 5 oranges there), soap, milk, and other donations that people had brought. During the auction, the choir would sometimes break into a song type chant about whatever was being auctioned off to encourage people to bid.
After church, Emanueli, Irene, and I met the Sakina Scholars at an internet café and taught them how to use internet and email. We signed them all up for gmail accounts. It was really fun! It was kind of crazy with all 18 of us in the internet café at once and other customers trying to use computers. It was really awesome though because the kids who had been there the longest started helping those that had just arrived. It was neat to see them working together and helping each other out. Then they started emailing each other just for fun. Some great teamwork. I wanted to get some pictures of them learning to use the computer, so I gave the camera to some of the scholars who were waiting and they helped me document the occasion. They were so excited!! We are going to go back to practice in a few weeks.
vocab word of the day:
Fundi – tailor
Saturday, June 27, 2009
New Scholar Interviews!
Yesterday morning we went to Burka Primary school to interview 10 students that both have need and good academics. This was a great practice for the health assessment that Emanueli and Irene will be conducting because they could practice the moderator and note-taker roles. One of them asked the questions and the other took notes. They switched roles halfway through. After every interview, they filled out a judging form based on criteria we came up with before: well-spoken, discipline, need, drive to learn, caring for community, and awareness about issues. I decided that since they’ll be the ones picking scholars in the future (and the interviews are conducted in Swahili), I will not help pick the scholars, but will rather help guide them through the selection process. We had a long debriefing session where we revised interview questions and processes for next year.
We then went to the bookstore, where we got all of the prices for all of the subjects for each form to see if it is feasible to add textbooks into the scholarship. This is one of the main problems cited in the student letters. We also started talking about the scholarship and Emanueli said he thought that we should include an English-Swahili dictionary in the scholarship, which is a great idea.
I realized just how much of an asset it is to actually have a place that is exclusive to the scholars where they can use laptops, read books, etc. A lot of scholarship programs, even in the US, strive to add value that is exclusive to their scholars in ways other than financial aid, but it’s hard if students are spread out among different schools and there isn’t a common place for them to spend time. The Sakina Scholars program definitely needs to use this asset to its potential.
Emanueli and I had a good conversation about health practices, which helped both of us start to think critically about health. Health works the same way as electricity (some pay bills, some don’t), phones, water, and everything else. Pay as you go. There are no checkups. I explained that the commonly accepted practice in the US is to get a checkup every year at the doctor, 2 times a year at the dentist, and 1 time a year at the eye doctor. Here, they only go when they get sick. Basically, it doesn’t make sense for people here to get checked out “just to see” because they don’t have the money to do that. I told him that we only go to specialty doctors (ears, nose, and throat, foot, back, etc.) when we have a problem, but that there are standard doctors we see every year. I explained that the benefits are that you can catch diseases early and that doctors can warn you ahead of time if they notice you are doing something bad for your health. I gave cancer as an example and Emanueli noted that there’s only one hospital in TZ that can treat cancer. I also asked him about people’s teeth here, which have lots of discoloration, and he said that it’s from some mineral in the water that is in excess. He asked me if we drink water from the tap in the US, and I explained that all the water goes to a kind of water factory, where they clean it first and it then goes to pipes which flow into people’s homes. It was great to swap experiences and think about the most basic things that we just accept as the norm, both here and in the US.
The idea with the health assessment that we are doing is to find out what kind of health program would benefit Sakina. Our initial hypothesis is that a community health worker program could be a real asset. Our hope is that we’ll see an improvement in people’s health and decrease in disease and death if we can catch disease, poor hygiene, and other negative health practices early by having community health workers visit households monthly to check in and record how health practices and rates of disease are changing.
Vocab word of the day:
Jumamosi - saturday
We then went to the bookstore, where we got all of the prices for all of the subjects for each form to see if it is feasible to add textbooks into the scholarship. This is one of the main problems cited in the student letters. We also started talking about the scholarship and Emanueli said he thought that we should include an English-Swahili dictionary in the scholarship, which is a great idea.
I realized just how much of an asset it is to actually have a place that is exclusive to the scholars where they can use laptops, read books, etc. A lot of scholarship programs, even in the US, strive to add value that is exclusive to their scholars in ways other than financial aid, but it’s hard if students are spread out among different schools and there isn’t a common place for them to spend time. The Sakina Scholars program definitely needs to use this asset to its potential.
Emanueli and I had a good conversation about health practices, which helped both of us start to think critically about health. Health works the same way as electricity (some pay bills, some don’t), phones, water, and everything else. Pay as you go. There are no checkups. I explained that the commonly accepted practice in the US is to get a checkup every year at the doctor, 2 times a year at the dentist, and 1 time a year at the eye doctor. Here, they only go when they get sick. Basically, it doesn’t make sense for people here to get checked out “just to see” because they don’t have the money to do that. I told him that we only go to specialty doctors (ears, nose, and throat, foot, back, etc.) when we have a problem, but that there are standard doctors we see every year. I explained that the benefits are that you can catch diseases early and that doctors can warn you ahead of time if they notice you are doing something bad for your health. I gave cancer as an example and Emanueli noted that there’s only one hospital in TZ that can treat cancer. I also asked him about people’s teeth here, which have lots of discoloration, and he said that it’s from some mineral in the water that is in excess. He asked me if we drink water from the tap in the US, and I explained that all the water goes to a kind of water factory, where they clean it first and it then goes to pipes which flow into people’s homes. It was great to swap experiences and think about the most basic things that we just accept as the norm, both here and in the US.
The idea with the health assessment that we are doing is to find out what kind of health program would benefit Sakina. Our initial hypothesis is that a community health worker program could be a real asset. Our hope is that we’ll see an improvement in people’s health and decrease in disease and death if we can catch disease, poor hygiene, and other negative health practices early by having community health workers visit households monthly to check in and record how health practices and rates of disease are changing.
Vocab word of the day:
Jumamosi - saturday
Friday, June 26, 2009
Kimaseki Secondary School
Kimaseki Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: John Medukenya
Daily Schedule
7:30-8:00 Roll Call and Cleanliness
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
Tuesdays: Sports
Wednesdays: Clubs
Fridays: Sports and Religious groups
Quick Facts
Founded: 2005
No. of Students (2009): 1463
No. of Teachers (2009): 21
No. of Classrooms (2009): 17 (currently building more)
Class size: From 55-80, Form I = 80-85, Form IV = 55-60
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Maroon pants or skirt and maroon sweater
School year: First term – mid January to early June; Second term – early July to early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: No
Clubs
Subject clubs
Health Club
Choir
Environmental Club
Scouts
Club Against Corruption
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and women’s needs, 3 days health seminar
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors who are teachers or from NGO’s
Field Trip: Organize student-financed trip varying in length and location
History
Kimaseki is a community based school that was started after the population of the primary schools in the area increased, creating a need for a secondary school. With funding from both the community and Tanzanian government, Kimaseki opened in 2005.
Future Plans
Kimaseki hopes to start a form V and VI (A-level program) in the future. It also hopes to increase the number of classrooms, create a lab, and library with more textbooks. It also hopes to have 3 or 4 staff quarters, add electricity, and have a computer classroom.
Classes
Forms I and II take 11 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Forms III and IV take 9 subjects, opting for business or science:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Science Track:
• Chemistry
• Physics
Business Track:
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Vocab word of the day:
mbu - mosquito
Key Contacts
Headmaster: John Medukenya
Daily Schedule
7:30-8:00 Roll Call and Cleanliness
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
Tuesdays: Sports
Wednesdays: Clubs
Fridays: Sports and Religious groups
Quick Facts
Founded: 2005
No. of Students (2009): 1463
No. of Teachers (2009): 21
No. of Classrooms (2009): 17 (currently building more)
Class size: From 55-80, Form I = 80-85, Form IV = 55-60
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Maroon pants or skirt and maroon sweater
School year: First term – mid January to early June; Second term – early July to early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: No
Clubs
Subject clubs
Health Club
Choir
Environmental Club
Scouts
Club Against Corruption
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and women’s needs, 3 days health seminar
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors who are teachers or from NGO’s
Field Trip: Organize student-financed trip varying in length and location
History
Kimaseki is a community based school that was started after the population of the primary schools in the area increased, creating a need for a secondary school. With funding from both the community and Tanzanian government, Kimaseki opened in 2005.
Future Plans
Kimaseki hopes to start a form V and VI (A-level program) in the future. It also hopes to increase the number of classrooms, create a lab, and library with more textbooks. It also hopes to have 3 or 4 staff quarters, add electricity, and have a computer classroom.
Classes
Forms I and II take 11 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Forms III and IV take 9 subjects, opting for business or science:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Science Track:
• Chemistry
• Physics
Business Track:
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Vocab word of the day:
mbu - mosquito
Sinoni Secondary School
Yesterday we went to Sinoni Secondary School and Kimaseki Secondary School, also broken down into two posts.
Sinoni was very impressive and had their own well and even had a nutrition track in addition to the science and business tracks! Kimaseki, on the other hand, didn’t even have electricity.
In general across schools, there is a shortage of teachers and a lot of the secondary schools were constructed in the last couple of years. I think the government created a new mandate which said that every municipality needs its own secondary school, which is why a bunch of new schools have cropped up in the past few years. All of the Sakina Scholars went to the same primary school, but were dispersed to all different parts of the city based on their national examination scores. I’m still not clear as to why some students are assigned to schools they are close enough to walk to and other students have to take a 50 minute daladala ride to school.
Sinoni Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Marco I. Mano
Academic Master: John Mtweve
Quick Facts
Founded: March 2001
No. of Students (2009): 1174
No. of Teachers (2009): 30
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: 45-70
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Dark green sweater, white blouse, black pants or skirt
School year: First term – mid January to March\April (Mid term holiday), June (mid year holiday), Second term – early July to late September, Third term – late September to late November
Laboratory: Not officially, but have resources to use in classrooms
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:15 Attendance
7:15-7:40 General cleanliness
7:40-8:00 Announcements
8:00-10:40 Classes begin
10:40-11:10 Break
11:10-2:30 Classes resume
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness, Remedial courses, and Extra-curricular activities
Mondays: Club meetings
Tuesdays: Self-Reliance
Wednesdays: Sports and Games
Thursdays: HIV\AIDS Talks
Friday: Sports and Games
Clubs
Health Club
Subject Clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Debate Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, guest speakers at health club, HIV\AIDS talks on Thursdays
Social Welfare: 2 teachers which act as counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed study tours to different places
Clean water: A sponsor helped them build their own well on the school grounds to guarantee that their students are using clean and safe water.
History
The school was started in March 2001 with 80 students and 4 teachers. Last year, 45 students graduated and went on to form V and VI at another school. This year, they expect 65 students to go on to complete their A-levels.
Future Plans
In the future, Sinoni plans to expand by adding more classrooms, a library, and official laboratories. They also want to have an administration block with offices for teachers and an internet café for teachers and students.
In terms of academics, their aim is to have 0 students score Division 0 on national exams and to reduce the number of students scoring in division 4.
Classes
Forms I and II opt to take the business track or the food and nutrition track, which consist of 9 core subjects and one or two additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Business Track (11):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (10):
• Food and Nutrition
Forms III and IV opt to do business, food and nutrition, or science, which consist of 7 core subjects plus 2 or 3 additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Business Track (9):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (9-10)
• Food and Nutrition
• Chemistry
• Physics (optional)
Science Track (9)
• Chemistry
• Physics
Vocab word of the day:
Hujambo – How are you
Sinoni was very impressive and had their own well and even had a nutrition track in addition to the science and business tracks! Kimaseki, on the other hand, didn’t even have electricity.
In general across schools, there is a shortage of teachers and a lot of the secondary schools were constructed in the last couple of years. I think the government created a new mandate which said that every municipality needs its own secondary school, which is why a bunch of new schools have cropped up in the past few years. All of the Sakina Scholars went to the same primary school, but were dispersed to all different parts of the city based on their national examination scores. I’m still not clear as to why some students are assigned to schools they are close enough to walk to and other students have to take a 50 minute daladala ride to school.
Sinoni Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Marco I. Mano
Academic Master: John Mtweve
Quick Facts
Founded: March 2001
No. of Students (2009): 1174
No. of Teachers (2009): 30
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: 45-70
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Dark green sweater, white blouse, black pants or skirt
School year: First term – mid January to March\April (Mid term holiday), June (mid year holiday), Second term – early July to late September, Third term – late September to late November
Laboratory: Not officially, but have resources to use in classrooms
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:15 Attendance
7:15-7:40 General cleanliness
7:40-8:00 Announcements
8:00-10:40 Classes begin
10:40-11:10 Break
11:10-2:30 Classes resume
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness, Remedial courses, and Extra-curricular activities
Mondays: Club meetings
Tuesdays: Self-Reliance
Wednesdays: Sports and Games
Thursdays: HIV\AIDS Talks
Friday: Sports and Games
Clubs
Health Club
Subject Clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Debate Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, guest speakers at health club, HIV\AIDS talks on Thursdays
Social Welfare: 2 teachers which act as counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed study tours to different places
Clean water: A sponsor helped them build their own well on the school grounds to guarantee that their students are using clean and safe water.
History
The school was started in March 2001 with 80 students and 4 teachers. Last year, 45 students graduated and went on to form V and VI at another school. This year, they expect 65 students to go on to complete their A-levels.
Future Plans
In the future, Sinoni plans to expand by adding more classrooms, a library, and official laboratories. They also want to have an administration block with offices for teachers and an internet café for teachers and students.
In terms of academics, their aim is to have 0 students score Division 0 on national exams and to reduce the number of students scoring in division 4.
Classes
Forms I and II opt to take the business track or the food and nutrition track, which consist of 9 core subjects and one or two additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Business Track (11):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (10):
• Food and Nutrition
Forms III and IV opt to do business, food and nutrition, or science, which consist of 7 core subjects plus 2 or 3 additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Business Track (9):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (9-10)
• Food and Nutrition
• Chemistry
• Physics (optional)
Science Track (9)
• Chemistry
• Physics
Vocab word of the day:
Hujambo – How are you
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Felix Mrema Secondary School
Felix Mrema Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: Rashid William Nkanga
Second Master: Mr. Hassan
Quick Facts
Founded: June 2007
No. of Students (2009): 750
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 13
Class size: unsure
Days of School: 195
Uniforms: Charcoal grey pants or skirt and light grey sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends beginning of December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:30 Reporting and General Cleanliness
7:40-7:55 Assembling and Announcements
8:00-2:40 Classes
2:40-3:00 General Cleanliness
3:00-4:30 Sports, Clubs, Remedial Classes
4:45 Home
Clubs
Family and Life Education club
Subject clubs
Scouts
Debate Club
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Academic Revolution Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, Global Service Corps health seminars
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for whole school
History
School was started in June 2007 with 164 students.
Future Plans
Felix Mrema plans to create a laboratory and library with more textbooks. They currently have 13 classrooms completed and 2 in progress. In addition, the school would like to offer bookkeeping and commerce classes, but don’t have enough teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
MEETING WITH SAKINA SCHOLARS: I also met with the scholars today to collect their photo release forms and connection letters. This was one of my favorite few hours in Sakina yet! I tried to teach them hand games in English and impressed them with my wide range of Swahili vocabulary (just kidding!). We sang songs and just goofed around. One of the scholars, William, said he liked the guitar, so I got out the guitar that Kerry had left here when she came. It seemed appropriate that the Sakina Scholars would enjoy an afternoon playing Kerry’s guitar. They also read letters that were sent from school children from Carrboro, NC and loved them! Thank you again!!!! I told them they could take pictures with my camera and they LOVED that. They all took turns posing together and posing with the guitar. I can tell the Literacy through Photography program during the scholars retreat will be a huge hit.
Vocab word of the day:
jioni - night
Key Contacts
Headmaster: Rashid William Nkanga
Second Master: Mr. Hassan
Quick Facts
Founded: June 2007
No. of Students (2009): 750
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 13
Class size: unsure
Days of School: 195
Uniforms: Charcoal grey pants or skirt and light grey sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends beginning of December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:30 Reporting and General Cleanliness
7:40-7:55 Assembling and Announcements
8:00-2:40 Classes
2:40-3:00 General Cleanliness
3:00-4:30 Sports, Clubs, Remedial Classes
4:45 Home
Clubs
Family and Life Education club
Subject clubs
Scouts
Debate Club
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Academic Revolution Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, Global Service Corps health seminars
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for whole school
History
School was started in June 2007 with 164 students.
Future Plans
Felix Mrema plans to create a laboratory and library with more textbooks. They currently have 13 classrooms completed and 2 in progress. In addition, the school would like to offer bookkeeping and commerce classes, but don’t have enough teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
MEETING WITH SAKINA SCHOLARS: I also met with the scholars today to collect their photo release forms and connection letters. This was one of my favorite few hours in Sakina yet! I tried to teach them hand games in English and impressed them with my wide range of Swahili vocabulary (just kidding!). We sang songs and just goofed around. One of the scholars, William, said he liked the guitar, so I got out the guitar that Kerry had left here when she came. It seemed appropriate that the Sakina Scholars would enjoy an afternoon playing Kerry’s guitar. They also read letters that were sent from school children from Carrboro, NC and loved them! Thank you again!!!! I told them they could take pictures with my camera and they LOVED that. They all took turns posing together and posing with the guitar. I can tell the Literacy through Photography program during the scholars retreat will be a huge hit.
Vocab word of the day:
jioni - night
Somebetini Secondary School
Yesterday we went to Sombetini and Felix Mrema Secondary schools, which I'll put in two posts to split it up a little. General thoughts: Sombetini impressed me with their English language skills. You could tell they really enforced the language pledge there – they even had a sign that said no English, no service. Haha. Every school has “general cleanliness” in the morning and afternoon, which is when the students clean up the school by watering flowers, cleaning desks, cleaning toilets, etc. They don’t have a janitor because the students and teachers take care of everything. Seems very efficient and somewhat empowering because it allows the students to take ownership and care over their school. It’s definitely an interesting approach.
Sombetini Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Bertha I. Lyimo
Second Master: John Chacha
Quick Facts
Founded: April 2008
No. of Students (2009): 806
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: >30
Days of School: 285-290
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and navy blue sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends mid December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:10 Arrival and roll call
7:10-7:30 Cleanliness
7:30-7:55 Morning Assembly
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
3:30 Dispersal
3:30-5:30 Remedial for Form II
Clubs
Subject clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption
Environmental Club
Religious Societies
Choir
Drama club
Poetry club
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Athletics
Netball
Motto
Education for Self Actualization
Vision
To provide a quality education so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential within a caring, secure environment
Mission
To provide a safe, supportive environment with a variety of educational opportunities to empower each student to develop the attitudes, behaviors, skills, knowledge to become self-assured, responsible and economically productive citizens
Student Services
Health: First aid kit
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari to Ngorogoro Crater or Serengeti
History
The school was started in April 2008 as a government school. They started with 320 form I students and 8 teachers. In October 2008, they hired 3 more teachers and received almost 500 new form I students.
Future Plans
Sombetini hopes to add bookkeeping and commerce classes but currently does not have the teacher capacity to do so. In two years, they plan to have nearly 1600 students. The headmaster wants to “make the school look like a school” with a laboratory and library.
The school also wants to be more self-dependent, which will require expanding school grounds to include a place for sports and more buildings for an administration block and classrooms. They hope to receive more teaching materials as well as teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
Vocab word of the day:
compyuta - computer
Sombetini Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Bertha I. Lyimo
Second Master: John Chacha
Quick Facts
Founded: April 2008
No. of Students (2009): 806
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: >30
Days of School: 285-290
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and navy blue sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends mid December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:10 Arrival and roll call
7:10-7:30 Cleanliness
7:30-7:55 Morning Assembly
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
3:30 Dispersal
3:30-5:30 Remedial for Form II
Clubs
Subject clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption
Environmental Club
Religious Societies
Choir
Drama club
Poetry club
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Athletics
Netball
Motto
Education for Self Actualization
Vision
To provide a quality education so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential within a caring, secure environment
Mission
To provide a safe, supportive environment with a variety of educational opportunities to empower each student to develop the attitudes, behaviors, skills, knowledge to become self-assured, responsible and economically productive citizens
Student Services
Health: First aid kit
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari to Ngorogoro Crater or Serengeti
History
The school was started in April 2008 as a government school. They started with 320 form I students and 8 teachers. In October 2008, they hired 3 more teachers and received almost 500 new form I students.
Future Plans
Sombetini hopes to add bookkeeping and commerce classes but currently does not have the teacher capacity to do so. In two years, they plan to have nearly 1600 students. The headmaster wants to “make the school look like a school” with a laboratory and library.
The school also wants to be more self-dependent, which will require expanding school grounds to include a place for sports and more buildings for an administration block and classrooms. They hope to receive more teaching materials as well as teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
Vocab word of the day:
compyuta - computer
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Literacy through Photography
Learning Through Photography program: Emanueli and I went into town to meet Elena and Katie from Literacy through Photography (LTP), a Duke-based program that works with pictures to think critically about the environment around us. It’s a really neat program! Durham and Arusha are apparently sister cities. An art teacher from Arusha Secondary School named Pepe went to Durham in 2005, loved the LTP program, and wanted to start it in Arusha. This is the 2nd or 3rd year that reps from LTP in Durham have come. They do lots of teacher trainings and then guide teachers to implement them in the schools.
Basically, what LTP does is tries to stimulate creative thinking and critical thinking to learn about a topic. For example, they have a staged process where they give children a topic and have them write down all the words that remind them of that topic. Then they draw what they think of when they envision the topic. Finally, they work together to take pictures that symbolize the topic. The idea is to engage the student rather than just having a teacher lecture from his or her notes.
LTP contacted Sustain Foundation about the work we are doing this summer and we hope we can integrate it into our initiatives. It was a great meeting and Emanueli, who was an art teacher, was very excited about it and we spent the whole way home brainstorming ways to use LTP in our health assessment and with our scholars. One way we could incorporate LTP into our program is to take some health related pictures to our one on one interviews or focus groups and talk about the pictures (where they look at every detail, down to the button on someone’s shirt). This is called photo elicitation.
Another way we are hoping to use LTP is to connect our scholars program with the health assessment. We would use LTP as the second day of our scholars retreat and use the writing, drawing, and taking pictures stages to think critically about health in the community, with topics such as mental health, problems in the community, staying in shape, food practices, hygiene, first aid, HIV awareness, etc. The scholars could work in small groups\teams to create pictures. In terms of the health assessment, we don’t really have a lot of time to do the full process in focus groups or interviews but could take the pictures that the scholars took to the focus groups (with church leaders, parents, village leaders, etc) and have them do photo elicitation to get them thinking about the community critically. The fact that the pictures were created by students living in Sakina to show different health issues will force the community members to accept what’s going on in Sakina and not dismiss it as another community’s problem. We may also want to bring in pictures from the outside of things like clean water, etc. (ideal conditions or very not ideal conditions) to get them thinking about how these conditions are similar or different in Sakina.
LTP has a blog that you should check out!
http://literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com.
Vocab word of the day:
Tutaonana baadae – see you later
Basically, what LTP does is tries to stimulate creative thinking and critical thinking to learn about a topic. For example, they have a staged process where they give children a topic and have them write down all the words that remind them of that topic. Then they draw what they think of when they envision the topic. Finally, they work together to take pictures that symbolize the topic. The idea is to engage the student rather than just having a teacher lecture from his or her notes.
LTP contacted Sustain Foundation about the work we are doing this summer and we hope we can integrate it into our initiatives. It was a great meeting and Emanueli, who was an art teacher, was very excited about it and we spent the whole way home brainstorming ways to use LTP in our health assessment and with our scholars. One way we could incorporate LTP into our program is to take some health related pictures to our one on one interviews or focus groups and talk about the pictures (where they look at every detail, down to the button on someone’s shirt). This is called photo elicitation.
Another way we are hoping to use LTP is to connect our scholars program with the health assessment. We would use LTP as the second day of our scholars retreat and use the writing, drawing, and taking pictures stages to think critically about health in the community, with topics such as mental health, problems in the community, staying in shape, food practices, hygiene, first aid, HIV awareness, etc. The scholars could work in small groups\teams to create pictures. In terms of the health assessment, we don’t really have a lot of time to do the full process in focus groups or interviews but could take the pictures that the scholars took to the focus groups (with church leaders, parents, village leaders, etc) and have them do photo elicitation to get them thinking about the community critically. The fact that the pictures were created by students living in Sakina to show different health issues will force the community members to accept what’s going on in Sakina and not dismiss it as another community’s problem. We may also want to bring in pictures from the outside of things like clean water, etc. (ideal conditions or very not ideal conditions) to get them thinking about how these conditions are similar or different in Sakina.
LTP has a blog that you should check out!
http://literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com.
Vocab word of the day:
Tutaonana baadae – see you later
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Elerai Secondary School
This morning we went to Elerai Secondary School, where four of the Sakina Scholars attend.
I talked to the assistant headmaster for almost 2 hours and he patiently answered all of my questions. Some basic observations before I give the full school profile: big class size, growing, in need of textbooks, teachers, and other teaching resources, very new.
Key Contacts
Headmistress: C.P. Kawala
Asst. Headmaster: Peter Bejumora
Quick Facts
Founded: May 2006
No. of Students (2009): 1439
No. of Teachers (2009): 45
No. of Classrooms (2009): 26
Class size: 60-63 students
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and dark green sweater
School year: Begins early January, ends early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:30 First Bell
7:30-7:40 Attendance
7:45 Morning Assembly
8:00-11:20 Classes
11:20-11:50 Midbreak
11:50-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:00 General Cleanness
3:15 Departure
3:00-4:30 Club meetings every Wednesday
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and periodic health seminars by medical professionals
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for form II students
History
The idea for Elerai Secondary School originally came from members of the community, who took the idea to the village leaders.
The issue was that Burka Primary School children had nowhere to go to secondary school because it was too expensive to send the children to the nearest secondary school, which was so far away they would have had to pay for room and board. The leaders met and agreed to start construction on a new school.
In 2005, construction started on six rooms and in May 2006, it became a government registered school, starting with just 200 students and 4 teachers. The construction of the school reduced the number of street children because families who previously couldn't afford boarding school could now send their children to secondary school.
By August of 2006, there were 10 teachers. In January 2007, there were a total of 10 rooms, 4 of which were built by the community, 20 teachers, and 693 students. By 2008, there were 35 teachers, 1078 students, and 17 rooms, 3 of which were financed by the Ministry of Education.
Future Plans
Elerai School is starting to outgrow its space. The school’s goals are to expand, buy more textbooks for the students, create a place for vocational training, open a laboratory, and establish a space for a library. It would also like to add form V and VI, but the government will choose which one of the 14 municipal schools in Elerai will teach form V and VI. The law mandates there must be one school in every municipal area with form V and VI, but there isn’t one yet in the town of Elerai.
Clubs
Subject clubs (English, Math, etc)
Scouts (co-ed)
Choir
Health Club
Debate Club
Club against Corruption
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV must take at least 7 subjects (6 of which are mandatory) and can take up to 11:
• English (Mandatory)
• Kiswahili (Mandatory)
• Math (Mandatory)
• Geography (Mandatory)
• Civics (Mandatory)
• Biology (Mandatory)
• Chemistry (Elective)
• Physics (Elective)
• History (Elective)
• Commerce (Elective)
• Bookkeeping (Elective)
Vocab word of the day:
Mahindi - corn
I talked to the assistant headmaster for almost 2 hours and he patiently answered all of my questions. Some basic observations before I give the full school profile: big class size, growing, in need of textbooks, teachers, and other teaching resources, very new.
Key Contacts
Headmistress: C.P. Kawala
Asst. Headmaster: Peter Bejumora
Quick Facts
Founded: May 2006
No. of Students (2009): 1439
No. of Teachers (2009): 45
No. of Classrooms (2009): 26
Class size: 60-63 students
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and dark green sweater
School year: Begins early January, ends early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:30 First Bell
7:30-7:40 Attendance
7:45 Morning Assembly
8:00-11:20 Classes
11:20-11:50 Midbreak
11:50-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:00 General Cleanness
3:15 Departure
3:00-4:30 Club meetings every Wednesday
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and periodic health seminars by medical professionals
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for form II students
History
The idea for Elerai Secondary School originally came from members of the community, who took the idea to the village leaders.
The issue was that Burka Primary School children had nowhere to go to secondary school because it was too expensive to send the children to the nearest secondary school, which was so far away they would have had to pay for room and board. The leaders met and agreed to start construction on a new school.
In 2005, construction started on six rooms and in May 2006, it became a government registered school, starting with just 200 students and 4 teachers. The construction of the school reduced the number of street children because families who previously couldn't afford boarding school could now send their children to secondary school.
By August of 2006, there were 10 teachers. In January 2007, there were a total of 10 rooms, 4 of which were built by the community, 20 teachers, and 693 students. By 2008, there were 35 teachers, 1078 students, and 17 rooms, 3 of which were financed by the Ministry of Education.
Future Plans
Elerai School is starting to outgrow its space. The school’s goals are to expand, buy more textbooks for the students, create a place for vocational training, open a laboratory, and establish a space for a library. It would also like to add form V and VI, but the government will choose which one of the 14 municipal schools in Elerai will teach form V and VI. The law mandates there must be one school in every municipal area with form V and VI, but there isn’t one yet in the town of Elerai.
Clubs
Subject clubs (English, Math, etc)
Scouts (co-ed)
Choir
Health Club
Debate Club
Club against Corruption
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV must take at least 7 subjects (6 of which are mandatory) and can take up to 11:
• English (Mandatory)
• Kiswahili (Mandatory)
• Math (Mandatory)
• Geography (Mandatory)
• Civics (Mandatory)
• Biology (Mandatory)
• Chemistry (Elective)
• Physics (Elective)
• History (Elective)
• Commerce (Elective)
• Bookkeeping (Elective)
Vocab word of the day:
Mahindi - corn
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Compassion Orphanage
Yesterday I went to Compassion Orphanage, a place at which the Maturo family used to volunteer and where we will conduct part of the health assessment. I met with Pastor Urio, a social worker named Joyce, and the Compassion coordinator, Mr. Mollel.
Compassion is a really neat place. They don’t receive any government money and depend on outside donors, internationally and domestically. About 300 kids attend Compassion, most of whom aren’t orphans, but who come from poor family situations. Some have sponsors from other countries as well. I got a tour of the compound, which consists of a big conference hall and offices as well as some “classrooms” and a kitchen. The classrooms are currently a converted chicken coop (see picture above) and a building in progress. The kids sang a song for me and asked me questions. On Saturdays they have little classes about different topics. They used to have fun things like art, etc., but they ran out of funding and now just have bible study and miscellaneous classroom topics. We will come back in a few weeks to teach about health.
In terms of services, they provide health services. They have a first aid kid on site and if the child gets very sick, they send the child to the hospital and pay for the medicine. They also have health seminars on prevention, hygiene, etc. In addition, they provide a healthy meal. Today, some of the parents of the Compassion children were making a healthy meal (greens, meat, etc) and are educated on how to prepare good food for their children. They also provide counseling to the parents about health and how to make the home environment better. They give the families little tasks to do that help Compassion but also give them some work (separating coal, etc).
I asked Joyce what she does as a social worker and she said she does three main things: 1) They do health evaluations which involves checking the children’s eyes, nose, etc. and assess their health situation to see if it’s changed since the last check up. They administer any care or send them to the hospital if necessary. 2) They create education reports for each child and mark down their class standing and grades. These reports are also sent to sponsors as an update. 3) Finally, she corresponds with overseas sponsors from countries such as the U.S., Korea, Greece, etc. They have the children write letters to their sponsors three times a year; at Christmas, Easter, and during school holidays. Each student has had the same sponsor the whole time so there is some continuity for the donor and student. They also send a picture of the student.
I met with the scholars again today! I am starting to be able to connect with them more between my Swahili and their English (which is actually pretty good). They taught me some more vocab words and tested me on the animals, which I didn’t remember very well. I asked them to tell me more about Masai (3 or 4 of them are part Masai), what they do around the house, what they like to cook, what they want to be, etc. We could start our own village – William wants to be an engineer, Elias an animal doctor, Omari a leader, Rehema a lawyer, and so on. We did a little ceremony where everyone got a certificate congratulating them for finishing their first year of secondary school and took some pictures. We also gave them the photo release form that Emanueli and Irene translated into Swahili. I will meet them on Wednesday for them to give us back the form and a letter (in English and Swahili) describing their year! Next Sunday we are meeting them at the internet café to give them email addresses, which they all looked EXTREMELY excited for. None of them have really used a computer, so it will be great for them to learn initially and then to have the laptops at the Maturo’s house for reinforcement.
Here is a picture of Emanueli, Irene, and Gladys working on my laptop together to translate the photo release form!
Picture of the scholars with their certificates!!! We took some pictures with the three coordinators (me, Emanueli, and Irene), but this was the only picture in which I could get them all to smile because I would say random things in Swahili to make them laugh. Haha.
Front row (left to right): Damian, Manase, Rehema, Eva, William
Second row (left to right): Felister, Dominic, Elias, Iddy, Omari, Patric
Vocab word of the day:
Ongeza! – more! (which Mama tells me every time I finish my food)
Getting ready for a busy week!
I taught Emanueli and Irene more about the laptops and showed them how to navigate around. I also showed them how to navigate a financial spreadsheet and put Emanueli in charge of the budget for the rest of the summer. We have been practicing how to fill out Excel spreadsheets and they are getting pretty good at it. While I filled out participant observer forms (which will help us document observations about different places in the community), Emanueli and Irene worked together on their laptop to finish translating and refining the scholarship application. Afterwards, we worked together and brainstormed interview questions and selection criteria. We are making some great headway with the Sakina scholars program!
Typical meal: ugali (tasteless white corn and flour mixture that has the consistency of grainy bread), green bean, potato and carrot stew, rice, beans (with coconut sauce yum!), cabbage, ginger chai, bananas. Everything is so delicious!
We are visiting 5 out of the 7 secondary schools that the Sakina Scholars attend, so stay tuned all week for school profiles! I’ll probably post into the weekend to complete all of the profiles.
Vocab word of the day:
Napenda – I like
Typical meal: ugali (tasteless white corn and flour mixture that has the consistency of grainy bread), green bean, potato and carrot stew, rice, beans (with coconut sauce yum!), cabbage, ginger chai, bananas. Everything is so delicious!
We are visiting 5 out of the 7 secondary schools that the Sakina Scholars attend, so stay tuned all week for school profiles! I’ll probably post into the weekend to complete all of the profiles.
Vocab word of the day:
Napenda – I like
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tanzanian Education System
Today was a very busy day, so I'll recap today's events (and hopefully a picture!) in tomorrow's post. But, since I’ll be working with the Sakina Scholars program more closely over the next couple weeks, it may be interesting for you to understand the education system here:
The structure of the Tanzanian education system consists of three levels of education:
• First Level: First level education consists of 7 years of primary school (elementary school). This level may sometimes also consist of one or two years of pre-primary school (pre-school).
• Second Level: Second level education, or secondary school consists of 4 years of junior secondary school (ordinary level school Form I-Form IV) and 2 years of senior secondary school (advanced level school Form V-Form VI).
• Third Level: Third level education consists of education and programs offered by separate, higher education institutions. Students complete at least 3 years of tertiary education (university).
The Tanzanian educational system includes a series of exams, the first taken in Form IV. The Certificate of Secondary Education Exam or the Ordinary Level (O-level) exams are held in November; the results are released in March of the following year. Students are tested in nine different subjects. The Sakina scholars take 12 subjects and choose which 9 they want to take. The subjects they take are:
• English
• Kiswahili
• History
• Geography
• Civics
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Commerce
• Book Keeping
• Economics
The Certificate of Secondary Education is awarded in four divisions to candidates who fulfill the state requirements.
• Division One: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics, (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.
• Division Two: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above, (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.
• Division Three and Division Four: descending from the above standards.
Candidates are eligible to enter the fifth year of secondary school if they pass in at least five subjects with grades of A-C on the O-Level exams. After the final year of secondary school - the thirteenth year - students can take the Advanced Certificate Examination (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies, which is recognized all over the world. The A-Levels are taken in May, and results come out in October, also awarded in four divisions. Division 1 and some Division 2 students are eligible for loans and government scholarships to go to university, but they are very competitive.
Vocab word of the day:
gari - car
pikipiki - motorcycle
The structure of the Tanzanian education system consists of three levels of education:
• First Level: First level education consists of 7 years of primary school (elementary school). This level may sometimes also consist of one or two years of pre-primary school (pre-school).
• Second Level: Second level education, or secondary school consists of 4 years of junior secondary school (ordinary level school Form I-Form IV) and 2 years of senior secondary school (advanced level school Form V-Form VI).
• Third Level: Third level education consists of education and programs offered by separate, higher education institutions. Students complete at least 3 years of tertiary education (university).
The Tanzanian educational system includes a series of exams, the first taken in Form IV. The Certificate of Secondary Education Exam or the Ordinary Level (O-level) exams are held in November; the results are released in March of the following year. Students are tested in nine different subjects. The Sakina scholars take 12 subjects and choose which 9 they want to take. The subjects they take are:
• English
• Kiswahili
• History
• Geography
• Civics
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Commerce
• Book Keeping
• Economics
The Certificate of Secondary Education is awarded in four divisions to candidates who fulfill the state requirements.
• Division One: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics, (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.
• Division Two: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above, (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.
• Division Three and Division Four: descending from the above standards.
Candidates are eligible to enter the fifth year of secondary school if they pass in at least five subjects with grades of A-C on the O-Level exams. After the final year of secondary school - the thirteenth year - students can take the Advanced Certificate Examination (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies, which is recognized all over the world. The A-Levels are taken in May, and results come out in October, also awarded in four divisions. Division 1 and some Division 2 students are eligible for loans and government scholarships to go to university, but they are very competitive.
Vocab word of the day:
gari - car
pikipiki - motorcycle
Friday, June 19, 2009
Laptops and Translation
Emanueli and I went into town and created Sustain Foundation’s own P.O. Box #13469. It’s definitely a great first step.
I started training Emanueli and Irene on the laptops, which were donated to Sustain Foundation and spruced up with open source Ubuntu and Open Office. There are also some educational programs on them for the scholars to use, including a typing program! I showed them how to use the laptops and some databases I made for storing information about finances and the Sakina Scholars program. We also talked about what kinds of documents we will need for the Sakina Scholar program going forward, such as an application and photo release form.
We started translating a scholar application I had made and before we knew it, the whole family was in the room pitching in. After we practice a little more, I hope they will type up a blog posting for us!
We are in the process of hiring a translator to translate all of the health assessment documents and will have them finished in the next two weeks so we can get started on the health assessment of Sakina!
The scholars are coming over again tomorrow and I can’t wait! We are giving them certificates of achievement to congratulate them for finishing their first year of secondary school (Form I). We filled out the certificates and filled in their name and school name. We are also giving them a photo release form for their parent\guardian to sign so that Sustain Foundation has official permission to use their pictures in promotional publications. Emanueli and Irene spent time after dinner translating a release form that I already had created.
During dinner, we watched the Dr. Dolittle vhs I brought for the family, which Mama has already watched twice! Haha.
Vocab word of the day:
Dada – sister
Kaka – brother
I started training Emanueli and Irene on the laptops, which were donated to Sustain Foundation and spruced up with open source Ubuntu and Open Office. There are also some educational programs on them for the scholars to use, including a typing program! I showed them how to use the laptops and some databases I made for storing information about finances and the Sakina Scholars program. We also talked about what kinds of documents we will need for the Sakina Scholar program going forward, such as an application and photo release form.
We started translating a scholar application I had made and before we knew it, the whole family was in the room pitching in. After we practice a little more, I hope they will type up a blog posting for us!
We are in the process of hiring a translator to translate all of the health assessment documents and will have them finished in the next two weeks so we can get started on the health assessment of Sakina!
The scholars are coming over again tomorrow and I can’t wait! We are giving them certificates of achievement to congratulate them for finishing their first year of secondary school (Form I). We filled out the certificates and filled in their name and school name. We are also giving them a photo release form for their parent\guardian to sign so that Sustain Foundation has official permission to use their pictures in promotional publications. Emanueli and Irene spent time after dinner translating a release form that I already had created.
During dinner, we watched the Dr. Dolittle vhs I brought for the family, which Mama has already watched twice! Haha.
Vocab word of the day:
Dada – sister
Kaka – brother
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sakina Scholars and Elerai Village Leaders
Recap from yesterday: I met with Emanueli and Irene to go over some of the plans for the summer. I gave them their business cards, which they were pretty excited about. They didn’t really know how to use them so I explained situations in which we should and should not use the business cards. I told them that we will have chances to practice.
I also met with all of the Sakina Scholars! It was so great to finally meet them. Many of them were pretty shy, so I asked them lots of questions and used my limited Kiswahili, which made them laugh. They have different levels of English, but they took turns teaching me Kiswahili. One boy, Elias, taught me different animal names and said that he is going to give me a test the next time we meet. They range in age from 14 to 16. Most of them said their favorite food is ugali, which is a white, rice based type of flavorless bread that you eat with stew and vegetables. In terms of music, they all like hip-hop, reggae, and bongo flavor. Here is a picture of them with Emanueli and Irene standing behind them. Front (from left to right): Back (left to right): Omar, Falista, Manasi, Raima, Eva, Patrick, Elias, Iddi, William, Damian, Dominic
I am excited to hear about the Carrboro\Sakina connection where students in Carrboro will write letters to our Sakina Scholars here! I think that will be really neat.
Emanueli was wearing his Fleet Feet shirt!
Today, Baba, Emanueli, and Irene took me to the Elerai office. Elerai is the area in which I live and Sakina is located within Elerai. Within Sakina, there are many streets on which many people live. The Maturo household is located on Kabida ya Maziwa.
I wanted to meet some key stakeholders in the community so that they were aware of what we would be doing over the next two months. They will also be an integral part in the health assessment of the community. Baba knows everyone, so he introduced me. I met the ward executive officer and the village chairman. They both were really nice and told me they would help in any way possible with Sustain Foundation’s work this summer. The village government breakdown is as follows: chancellor (elected), ward executive officer (works with chancellor but is appt by govt), village chairman (elected), village executive officer (works with village chairman but is appt by govt), street chairman (elected), Ten sill leader (elected and is in charge of a small group of households).
Then we went took the daladala, which are small vans that serve as the bus system, into town. We first stopped at the Arusha Municipal Center and met with some officials who explained the NGO registration process. It’s a little complicated and may take a little while to become officially registered, so it’s a good thing the village leaders are supportive.
It was fun to help Emanueli and Irene start using their business cards at every office we visited!
Vocab word of the day:
Picha - picture
I also met with all of the Sakina Scholars! It was so great to finally meet them. Many of them were pretty shy, so I asked them lots of questions and used my limited Kiswahili, which made them laugh. They have different levels of English, but they took turns teaching me Kiswahili. One boy, Elias, taught me different animal names and said that he is going to give me a test the next time we meet. They range in age from 14 to 16. Most of them said their favorite food is ugali, which is a white, rice based type of flavorless bread that you eat with stew and vegetables. In terms of music, they all like hip-hop, reggae, and bongo flavor. Here is a picture of them with Emanueli and Irene standing behind them. Front (from left to right): Back (left to right): Omar, Falista, Manasi, Raima, Eva, Patrick, Elias, Iddi, William, Damian, Dominic
I am excited to hear about the Carrboro\Sakina connection where students in Carrboro will write letters to our Sakina Scholars here! I think that will be really neat.
Emanueli was wearing his Fleet Feet shirt!
Today, Baba, Emanueli, and Irene took me to the Elerai office. Elerai is the area in which I live and Sakina is located within Elerai. Within Sakina, there are many streets on which many people live. The Maturo household is located on Kabida ya Maziwa.
I wanted to meet some key stakeholders in the community so that they were aware of what we would be doing over the next two months. They will also be an integral part in the health assessment of the community. Baba knows everyone, so he introduced me. I met the ward executive officer and the village chairman. They both were really nice and told me they would help in any way possible with Sustain Foundation’s work this summer. The village government breakdown is as follows: chancellor (elected), ward executive officer (works with chancellor but is appt by govt), village chairman (elected), village executive officer (works with village chairman but is appt by govt), street chairman (elected), Ten sill leader (elected and is in charge of a small group of households).
Then we went took the daladala, which are small vans that serve as the bus system, into town. We first stopped at the Arusha Municipal Center and met with some officials who explained the NGO registration process. It’s a little complicated and may take a little while to become officially registered, so it’s a good thing the village leaders are supportive.
It was fun to help Emanueli and Irene start using their business cards at every office we visited!
Vocab word of the day:
Picha - picture
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Hello Sakina!
Hello! I have made it safe and sound to Sakina, where I will spend two months working with Irene and Emanueli Maturo. Right now I am spending a day or two getting oriented to the village and preparing our plan of attack.
SAKINA: I’m staying in a small village within Sakina called Maziwa (which means milk in Kiswahili). I got a tour of the house and my room, which is very nice! The restroom (which is basically a nice outhouse) and washroom (where I was with a bucket) are outside by the cowshed. They have a very big compound and grow their own banana trees!
Maturo family: There is Baba and Mama – Baba speaks very good English and he was a math teacher in primary school and then a program officer for primary schools at the Ministry of Education. He is Masai, but the last person in his family to live in a Masai boma (village) was his grandfather. Mama is Chagga (the tribe from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and she speaks very limited English; however, she is so nice and welcoming! The kids are Winston, Irene, Gladys, Emanueli, Stephen, and Clemens. Winston is the oldest and he used to be a shopkeeper for a tourist office, but now lives at home and also takes English classes. Irene and Gladys sometimes decorate and cater weddings to earn extra money. Gladys teaches primary school and is taking classes to resit the Form IV exam so she can get a certificate, which will allow her to earn more money. Emanueli finished through form IV and enjoys painting and drawing. He was an art teacher. Stephen is a chef at a restaurant that makes American type food and he is going to cook for the family next week. Clemens is in Form IV and will be taking his national exam in October. He really likes the sciences.
ARUSHA: Yesterday, Emanueli took me into the city of Arusha, which is surrounded by mountains. It is winter here and is in the 70’s. After spending a month in Zanzibar where it was consistently in the 90’s, this is a refreshing change of pace. The city reminds me a little of the western USA landscape and is the base for many tourist safaris.
We went to the Museum of Natural History, which is located in the old German Boma from when Germany colonized TZ. Behind the museum is Mt. Meru, which takes about 3-5 days to climb. It was colonized in 1885 and then peacefully taken over by the British in 1918 after Germany lost the First World War. Some good things: Germany built lots of infrastructure that still stands today, which many Tanzanians agree still benefits TZ. They also encouraged the use of Kiswahili in government. Some bad things: They mistreated the Tanzanians, especially women and used corporal punishment. They would severely beat people for small misdemeanors.
We also went to the UN Tribunal for Genocide in Rwanda (which occurred in 1994) and sat in on a court proceeding. The tribunal will close this year because they will soon finish will all of the court proceedings.
Today, I will be meeting all of the Sakina Scholars from Burka Secondary School and will post updates and hopefully pictures later this week.
Learn Kiswahili:
skuli - school
SAKINA: I’m staying in a small village within Sakina called Maziwa (which means milk in Kiswahili). I got a tour of the house and my room, which is very nice! The restroom (which is basically a nice outhouse) and washroom (where I was with a bucket) are outside by the cowshed. They have a very big compound and grow their own banana trees!
Maturo family: There is Baba and Mama – Baba speaks very good English and he was a math teacher in primary school and then a program officer for primary schools at the Ministry of Education. He is Masai, but the last person in his family to live in a Masai boma (village) was his grandfather. Mama is Chagga (the tribe from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and she speaks very limited English; however, she is so nice and welcoming! The kids are Winston, Irene, Gladys, Emanueli, Stephen, and Clemens. Winston is the oldest and he used to be a shopkeeper for a tourist office, but now lives at home and also takes English classes. Irene and Gladys sometimes decorate and cater weddings to earn extra money. Gladys teaches primary school and is taking classes to resit the Form IV exam so she can get a certificate, which will allow her to earn more money. Emanueli finished through form IV and enjoys painting and drawing. He was an art teacher. Stephen is a chef at a restaurant that makes American type food and he is going to cook for the family next week. Clemens is in Form IV and will be taking his national exam in October. He really likes the sciences.
ARUSHA: Yesterday, Emanueli took me into the city of Arusha, which is surrounded by mountains. It is winter here and is in the 70’s. After spending a month in Zanzibar where it was consistently in the 90’s, this is a refreshing change of pace. The city reminds me a little of the western USA landscape and is the base for many tourist safaris.
We went to the Museum of Natural History, which is located in the old German Boma from when Germany colonized TZ. Behind the museum is Mt. Meru, which takes about 3-5 days to climb. It was colonized in 1885 and then peacefully taken over by the British in 1918 after Germany lost the First World War. Some good things: Germany built lots of infrastructure that still stands today, which many Tanzanians agree still benefits TZ. They also encouraged the use of Kiswahili in government. Some bad things: They mistreated the Tanzanians, especially women and used corporal punishment. They would severely beat people for small misdemeanors.
We also went to the UN Tribunal for Genocide in Rwanda (which occurred in 1994) and sat in on a court proceeding. The tribunal will close this year because they will soon finish will all of the court proceedings.
Today, I will be meeting all of the Sakina Scholars from Burka Secondary School and will post updates and hopefully pictures later this week.
Learn Kiswahili:
skuli - school
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