Transforming Tanzanian schools with Technology

This month saw the first Youth Camp organised by Benedicto from Mboni ya Vijana (eyes of the youth) NGO in Zeze village, Kigoma.  He was ably supported by 3 students from Raincatcher charity from Imperial College London. Youth groups attended from all over Tanzania and learnt many practical skills such as how to drill for water, weld pumps, make soap, and start small businesses. There were also science practical activities which took place in the only completed science laboratory of Zeze Secondary School. They demonstrated how to use the 10 raspberry pi’s they took out. These have different educational resources downloaded onto them such as wikipedia and Khan Academy.

They brought about 40kg of lab equipment with them, donated by Lab Aid. This was given to the school to supplement the small amount of practical equipment they currently had. As much of the equipment was new, even to the teachers, they had to demonstrate how to use some of it. For example we showed them how to use microscopes and also explained the risks associated with using them. The children also expressed their gratitude for the equipment and explained how it would help them learn practical skills in science. Much of the equipment they had never seen before and were very interested to see how it worked.

The teachers were also keen to practise certain experiments with us, so there were some physics experiments which they worked through, such as demonstrating Ohm’s Law. James also showed them multiple new experiments for physics including finding the length of a room using sound waves and Joe explained various new ideas for biology practicals.

Through discussions with the teachers and observations throughout the project, Raincatcher realised the single most important thing for students to learn in science was skills that they could actually apply directly to their lives in rural villages like Zeze. Therefore the majority of their time in the school was spent looking through the syllabus with the teachers and discussing potential projects which the students could work on with the teachers over the course of a few weeks. Such projects included extracting oil from groundnuts, creating a simple generator using a magnet and coil of wire, or examining different agricultural pests under a microscopes.

These will be worked on by Imperial College over the next year and will be send to the teachers in Tanzania at various points to allow them to assess the feasibility of these practicals, as the main aim of these projects is teaching students useful technical skills which use locally available materials. After this pilot the materials will also be shared more widely.

Thank you again for your generosity to this project. 

Many of the students in the schools we support have problems reading books and from the blackboard because they need glasses.  Unfortunately there are no opticians near these schools and students have never had eye tests.

Therefore with the help of your donations, we purchased a vision screening kit and trained teachers to test the eyesight of their students and provide glasses to those who needed them.  The kit comprises a testing kit linked to colour coded lenses.  The tester determines which lenses are needed and then snaps them into frames.  Therefore the student obtains the glasses they need immediately.

So far we have distributed over 200 pairs of glasses to some very happy students. "Before I found it very difficult reading from the blackboard and had to rely on my fellow students to help me.  But with my glasses I can see very clearly and I thank God for this project", said Betina, 14.

Currently we are operating the vision screening program in one area of Kagera, but when funding allows we are hoping to roll it out to the areas surrounding the other schools we support.