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
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