Health Celebration and Scholar Celebration

This past weekend was busy!

We had a health celebration in Sakina where we taught people how to wash their hands, passed out hand sanitizer and toothbrushes, shared ideas, did trash pick up, and passed out oranges. It was really fun and I think people in the community got really engaged. We are going to start doing this every Saturday morning.

We also have a group of volunteers who are going to start helping more regularly with the Saturday morning volunteering.

We also had a scholar celebration for the scholar families. We unveiled the "resource room" which is located in an extra room at the Maturo household. The scholars now have a quiet place to study and be immersed in a positive environment. Since most of them live in one room with their family which is used as a kitchen, bedroom, and sitting room, and most schools don't have a library, giving our scholars a place to study is one of the best gifts we can give them. I have been taking them to the bookstore to pick out a couple of books so they can start a library.

They are very excited and I think the room is a tangible way to emphasize the importance of education, both for the students and their parents.

I am leaving Sakina on Friday and will really miss everyone here.

vocab word of the day:
vitabu - book

Health Assessment Wrap Up

We have finished out the health assessment strong!

Last week we had a focus group with an NGO called UEDA (Urban Environmental Development Association) which works with solid waste management in Sakina. It was extremely informative!

We also had a focus group with potential community health workers. This was an amazing group of people and I think they are the key to building a strong foundation for Sustain Foundation in Sakina. This was the first focus group in which we even had some people interrupting each other because everyone wanted to talk! It was very dynamic and inspiring to see Sakina residents getting fired up about health.

We met with all of the scholar parents and did non-random surveys.

Up next: hopefully a small health celebration to kick off Sustain Foundation's health program!

Scholar Home Visits

This weekend all of the scholars went on a little field trip to everyone's home. It was fun for them to see where each other lives. We also took video of each scholar's home with the FLIP camera so that I can bring back a taste of life here in Tanzania.

Health Assessment update: We are wrapping up our focus groups with NGO's, potential community health workers, and teachers in the community. We will be surveying the parents of the scholars this weekend as well so we are able to get a better sense of scholars and their families needs.

word of the day:
ndizi - banana

Congratulations to our new Sakina Scholars!

Congratulations to our new Sakina Scholars!

The first is Suzana. She has two older brothers and 1 younger brother. Suzana lives with her older brother and his wife, who supports the family as a shoe maker. Her father passed away when she was very young and her mother passed away in 2007. She lives in a 3 room mud hut. Suzana wants to be a doctor because she will be able to assist people and educate them. Her favorite part about Tanzania is peace. Her favorite animal is a giraffe, favorite food - bananas, favorite music - hip hop, and favorite color - black. Three words that describe her are obedient, punctual, and enjoys studying. She enjoys playing netball and volleyball. She is also one of the top students in her class!

The second scholar is Gerald. He has 1 older sister and 1 younger sister. His father died in 2008 and his mother supports the family selling vegetables at a small hut and sometimes pounding stones that are sold for construction. He would like to be an accountant because he likes math. He enjoys playing football, basketball, and running. His favorite food is ugali, favorite animal - elephant, favorite color - green, and favorite music - hip hop. Three words that describe himself are he likes others, wants to learn more about god, and likes collaboration. He wants to go to America to see Mt. Rushmore. He is very studious and loves learning about new places and cultures.

Congratulations to our two new Sakina Scholars!

Sakina Health Evaluation

Sorry I haven't written in a while - we've been busy!!!

We have started and almost finished the Sakina Health Evaluation (SHE). We have had focus groups with the village leaders as well as other stakeholder groups in the community (men, women, church leaders, etc.). We have also done over 70 household surveys, which we identify via random sampling. It has been so fun to visit different households in Sakina. I have learned so much and I know that Emanueli and Irene have really enjoyed meeting different people in the community. They have become great ambassadors for Sustain Foundation and have spread their enthusiasm for what Sustain Foundation is doing in Sakina to the Sakina residents. It's really neat when I see people we surveyed in the street and we stop to talk and say hello.

Also, THANK YOU TEAM SAKINA and everyone who said hi on the FLIP camera. We received it on Friday and the scholars watched all the videos on Saturday. The loved it and will be videoing their own homes so that you can learn about them as well. They were so excited to learn that women are running the distance from North Carolina to Sakina and that they are named Team Sakina!

word of the day:
tathmini - interview

Women's Focus Group

We had a women's focus group yesterday which went really well. It’s really cool because Irene is in this group of women that meets once a month. They meet every month to talk about their lives and how to improve them. They each contribute a little money and they give it to one of the ladies to do with it whatever she wants. For example, use it to buy flour to make mandazi (bread) and sell it. Or buy a goat. It’s almost like a little microfinance group. A lot of the women are already small business owners. It was really rewarding to see Irene explain to them what we could talk about because she was telling them about everything we’d learned about business already.

vocab word of the day:
nina njaa - I'm hungry

Village Leaders

Picture of all the scholars and their parents!!!

We got to meet with village leaders this week. They were very supportive of our upcoming health assessment and plan to walk around with us so that people in the community feel comfortable talking to us.

We also had a focus group with our scholar parents and learned a lot about health in Sakina as well as how the Sakina Scholars scholarship has impacted their family. We are currently in the process of transcribing and translating!!

Scholars Retreat Day 2

Today we changed our plan a bit. We were planning to do a Literacy through Photography exercise, but the supplies hadn't arrived from the US yet (definitely due to the mail system here) so we did some arts and crafts using some supplies I had brought.

We finished up scholar interviews (details to come soon!) and had a little group discussion about life in Sakina. Some highlights: Their daily routine includes waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to prepare tea. Then they brush their teeth, wash their face, clean their room, drink tea, put on uniform, comb hair, and go to school around 7:00-7:30. Some of them can walk and others have 45 minute rides on the daladala (little vans that serve as public transport and cost about 10 cents for students).

After they come home from school around 2, they eat lunch, clean clothes, wash dishes, fetch water from the stream, bathe, help parents cook, do homework, and play soccer. They go to bed between 9 and 11.

Only one scholar has a TV and electricity. None of them own a calculator. Very few people own pets like we think of pets, but some have animals such as pigeons, a hen, cow, sheep, dog, duck, dog, and rabbit. 5 of them have a flashlight, 2 have a radio, everyone has a bed, but one sleeps on a couch. Only two of them have a family bicycle.

More details to come soon!
vocab word of the day: chiupe - rabbit

Scholars Retreat Day 1

Happy 4th of July!

Today we started our scholars retreat!!! I sincerely apologize for not posting pictures, but I will try to get some ready for another blog posting! We went to Mesarani Snake Park, where they had HUGE snakes and other reptiles. We saw crocodiles and lots of snakes. The scholars all thought it was really cool. We also went through a Masai cultural tour, where we learned about Masai culture. At least 3 of our scholars are part Masai, so they enjoyed explaining it to me as well. Then we went on camel rides, which they LOVED.

When we returned to the Maturos, we did 6 scholar interviews. I will post information about each of them soon. Stay tuned!


vocab word of the day:
ngamia - camel

Business Modules

Today we got a lot accomplished. In the morning, we talked a lot about strategic planning. We created a budget for the rest of the summer, trying to anticipate all costs we might have. Then we prioritized them. I also taught them a little bit more about excel. We practiced doing some math to calculate the budget. It really put costs into perspective. They learned how to add, add different boxes, and use the sum formula. While we were creating our budget, which I gave to Irene to write down since Emanueli had some practice already with the finances. We also talked about different business models (donation based, service providers, and those that sell goods) and brainstormed ways SF in Sakina could raise money. Finally, we did a SWOT analysis of Sustain Foundation in Sakina to really demonstrate what resources we have that we should utilize and what things we still need to figure out. Overall it was a very successful morning!

Compassion Take 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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