Africa
SATW taking action in Africa
The late John Travers who founded SATW, dreamed of one day actually building a school in Africa. Through SATW it is hoped his dream will be realised with plans in place to build a new secondary education boarding school at Miono in the Bagamoya District of Tanzania.
John, with the help of colleague Boris van Haare Heijmeijer in C&W Brussels, had undertaken a lot of research into the possibilities in countries such as Uganda, Tanzanian Malawi and Ghana and was already developing a number of leads at the time of his tragic passing in June 2007. In addition, the C&W Equity Partners in EMEA had agreed with the Trustees of SATW to provide an extraordinary charitable donation from the profits of the firm to help finance this initiative.
Determined to keep John's dream alive, Boris and John's wife Jennie, set off on a fact finding trip to Tanzania in October last year. They were accompanied by Sam Ibekwe, a close friend of John's and Simon Uforosia Mlay the Ambassador of Tanzania in Brussels, Benelux and for European Union.
The trip began with a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Education and Vocational training in Tanzania. Boris and the team were also taken to see four schools so they could understand the differences between private, government-run and community schools.
They saw at first hand the severe lack of opportunities for children to receive a secondary level education in Tanzania The Government does not has sufficient funds to build the number schools the country needs and the existing schools are in a very bad state of repair and poorly maintained. Class rooms originally designed for 30 students are bursting at the seams with 50-60 students. In addition to the clear shortage of classrooms, many of the schools don't have basic facilities such as libraries and laboratories.
On visiting Bagamoyo District the team met with Alex Mwakawago of the Education Department who was responsible for overseeing construction of schools in the area. It was explained that currently only two out of 16 government, private and community schools serving the 240,000 people in Bagamoyo offer an A level education.
The team were introduced to the local district chiefs in the village of Miono which is a small village, 10km off the high way but accessible via a good local road. Two pieces of land were proposed as potential sites for the new school. They team opted for a 100 acre site 6km outside Miono, which, whilst it had no water or electricity supplies, did provide for future expansion in the longer term.
On behalf of SATW, Boris and Jennie proposed to meet the government's aim to build a 2-stream A-level boarding secondary school on this site in Miono. It will provide 12 classes of 30 students, 2 blocks of laboratories, a library and computer room. The residential facilities will comprise 7 blocks of dormitories, dining hall /kitchen, sick bay and housing facilities for teachers. There will also be sports facilities including athletics, football, basketball, handball, volleyball and netball.
Following their very successful trip Boris and Jennie returned to update the SATW Trustees on progress made and to have their proposals approved.
Importantly, the proposal has the full backing of the Minister of Education in Tanzania who requested that the school become a national "model" A-level school rather than a local or regional one. This means the brightest students from across Tanzania will be able to apply to attend the school.
SATW will closely monitor the implementation of the project which is now well under way.
A dream will soon become a reality and moreover this school will help eleviate the desperate shortage of such schools and will benefit students and the wider community for years to come. Boris and Jennie will next visit the site in in the next few months once the construction has commenced and will be able provide a full report on this exciting initiative.
For more information, contact Boris.vanHaareHeijmeijer@eur.cushwake.com.
