​LIGHTING THE WAY TANZANIA
Education is Everything
Our Story
Bishop Chitemo School may have started small but it quickly became a highly desirable school and grew to over 200 students in just a few years. Keeping the classes small is crucial to the success of the students so the school continues to add classrooms and teachers as resources allow.
Our History
Berega, Tanzania is home to a small hospital and nursing school built by the British in the 1800s. The Berega Hospital serves many of the poorest residents of Tanzania. For years it struggled to keep staff because there was no decent school nearby for their children to receive a good education and learn English. In 2011, when the hospital director wanted to keep his young children at home rather than send them away to boarding school, an American doctor stepped in and helped start a small English medium school next to the hospital.
The tiny school began with only six children, one teacher (a newly certified young Tanzanian named Martha) and Liz, an American nurse with experience working in Africa. Liz and Martha began teaching these eager new students with the few resources they had and bit by bit their kindergarten classroom came together, the children started learning, and the school began to grow. They used every available surface as teaching material. They painted the walls and the doors with the alphabet, numbers, words and animals. They began collecting books and supplies, they used leftover building materials, and they used the environment in any way they could.
By early 2012 they had 2 classrooms (kindergarten and 1st grade), a meal plan, books, a library, and two full time teachers. The school grew right along with those first kindergarteners by adding a new class each year until they finally reached 7th grade. The first class graduated in 2018 and the school continues to grow with the help of international sponsors and volunteers. Today, Bishop Chitemo School is a full primary school offering pre-k through standard 7 with over 300 students.
School entrance
The first 6 students.
School entrance
The early days in pictures
Our Beliefs
Africa is no different from the rest of the world. A person needs an education to succeed so university, trade school, or some other training is necessary to earn a sustainable living through their lifetime. The difference is that achieving a higher education is not even an option for much of the population. The school system in Tanzania is woefully substandard with a shortage of quality teachers and severe overcrowding. It is hard for someone from a wealthy country to even comprehend the conditions.
Consequently, a large percentage of children do not even finish primary school, much less continue on to secondary school. Many English teachers have such poor English that the children learn almost nothing. And since most of what they have learned is memorized, it is not real knowledge. These conditions make breaking free from the cycle of poverty even more difficult and rare.
At Bishop Chitemo School, we place an emphasis on English, math, reading and writing. Class sizes are smaller with highly qualified teachers. Our students are challenged to THINK, not just memorize. Accordingly, they perform extremely well on their national exams, and finally, on their leaving exams. These exams determine whether the students can move forward to non-government secondary schools if they have the means to attend either from their parents or the generosity of foreign sponsors.
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Accomplishments
9
Grades offered at Bishop Chitemo Primary School,
Two pre-school levels and grades 1 -7.
10
Classrooms with 6 more needed. Construction has begun on 2 of the 6.
30
Students able to attend secondary school through our sponsorship program.
45
Employees and volunteers at Bishop Chitemo School. Today there are 18 full-time teachers plus staff.
360
Students enrolled at Bishop Chitemo in 2022. 120 day students with 240 borders
OUR VISION
Anything is Possible
So, what to do with successful primary school graduates? With our first graduating class in 2018, we located a couple of reputable secondary schools to work with, and we organized sponsorships to continue helping as many students as we could. Many of these students have now completed their secondary education and have moved on to even higher educational opportunities
An education at Bishop Chitemo School is only the first step in affecting real change in the lives of our students. We want the students to have a real shot at achieving their dreams and goals and adding value to their communities. These kids need to continue their education and the condition at the government secondary schools is no better than the primary school, sometimes worse. The schools are often far from their homes with very little quality education occurring. Once we have gotten them this far, we don’t want to simply wish them well and send them on their way.
Our vision is to send as many students as we can as far as we can get them. We are fully invested in the lives of these children, and we hope that you will be too.
SEGA Secondary School is the perfect place for the girls we are able to send through our sponsorship program. While education is difficult for many children, it is a sad reality that girls in Tanzania have even less chance of receiving an education than boys. With a focus on vulnerable girls (exactly the girls we seek to sponsor) SEGA works to holistically train girls to possess the confidence they need to become women that succeed in learning, earning, and leading social change.
Not only do the girls receive a quality academic education, but they are also taught important financial, entrepreneurial, health, and life skills to give them the tools they need to obtain meaningful employment, start a small business or continue in their educational pursuits.
Sega provides everything the girls need so the tuition is a bit higher. The focus is on allowing this particular population of students the complete support system that they require.
The boys in the sponsorship program are sent to Kitungwa Adventist Secondary School. This is one of the top private secondary schools in the area and the school has plenty of teachers, classrooms, and the proper facilities to provide a successful quality education with good results.
This was not our original secondary school, but after receiving reports of student beatings from our first choice we had to find a better option. Beatings are an accepted practice in Tanzanian schools and our students come from an environment where beating children is discouraged.
We are a small, hands-on foundation and remain closely involved in the progress of the students with regular reports from our volunteers and advocates in Tanzania and a yearly visit by our Director to ensure that the students are well and that all tuitions are paid in full.