<Working with Schools>

As soon as I arrived at the airport, I headed straight to a secondary school to start observing. So far we’ve met more than 15 schools to introduce our program, and with some, we are moving onto further discussion. The more schools we visit, the reality of education in the country and the statistics we learned of becomes more tangible to us, and it gives us even more conviction for our ministry. Vast majority of the schools do not own computer lab. One school we visited that was known to be doing computer education very well, had an American volunteer who was “winging it”.

We got an e-learning company as a partner who will be creating our curriculum in a professional format on their learning platform, and we also have three local interns who are very friendly and eager to be part of some work that can impact their community in a very powerful way. 

With one of the schools, our discussion caught speed very fast. We were able to get the consent from the faculty and the parents in an all-parent meeting in just a week, but then we are experiencing difficulty getting approval from the district education officer. Top-down culture is very strong in Tanzanian education system, and we are learning that it is crucial to have the district’s approval before initiating any level of discussion with the individual schools. 

Despite some challenges, we are received by most of the schools with positive attitude, and sometimes even very eager attitude. We also feel that God is giving us stronger conviction for our ministry, as we become humble and pray daily about our finite knowledge and incomplete plans.