The rotary club of Oyster Bay together with three rotary clubs in Belgium has initiated a service project to assist in the improvement of two schools near the airport in Dar es Salaam.
The schools are called Juhudi and Ukonga and are primary schools which are connected by an alleyway. I went to visit on a sunny Saturday morning. I love going out of town but rarely have the opportunity, not least because I don’t have my own transport. So when the chance came I leapt at it.
Juhudi school has a lovely yard, full of plants and trees and, surprisingly for a Saturday morning, it also has some classes in operation. I later realised that even though the head teacher said they were catch up classes, they are probably private classes i order for the teachers to earn a few extra shillings. The heads of both schools didn’t like to admit this. I guess they thought it was against the rules. But I don’t care if the classrooms are used when the school is closed and teachers earn a pittance so let them do privates I say,
The rotary club has already started renovating two classrooms which were in a terrible state of repair. Many of the other classrooms were in a similar state – ripped up floors, roof with holes, walls crumbling, lack of desks and chairs etc.
We inspected the work carried out so far and found it satisfactory and then toured both schools so understand what other needs they had. Apart from dilapidated classrooms, the toilet blocks were a scene from a horror film. The roof had collapsed in one block and had then been abandoned and the remaining block had stalls without doors because they had all rotted and fallen off. So there is clearly a desperate need for new toilet blocks.
I saw some children having a class under a tree in the yard and asked why they were there when all classrooms were empty and they could take their pick, It was explained to us that the ventilation in the classrooms was not very good and they were too hot to use. So a fresh demand to replace brickwork walls with ventilation holes, with proper mesh windows (unglazed) was made.
I suggested that the proposed library be put right at the bottom of the list and that the construction of new toilet blocks and serviceable classrooms was much more urgent.
The most surprising and frankly horrifying thing I learnt on the visit was that absenteeism is running at 20%. This means that on any given day you will find 1/5 of the school population absent, probably hanging around the streets or doig small tasks for money to buy food.
Food is not provided at the school and so many of the children go hungry. This could be the reason why so many don’t come to school. How can anyone concentrate when their stomachs are empty and who can blame kids for trying to make some money to feed themselves.
There is a lot to do in these schools but with the support of 4 rotary clubs, I am sure that it will be done. There is money available and there is a will and that’s all that really counts.