Gelai School, Lake Natron, Tanzania
Community Projects Africa has helped Laura Clark to realise a dream - to build two classrooms for the school at Gelai Village in the Masai lands of Tanzania.
Through our links with Community Challenge, a company specialising in sending corporate groups and individuals wishing to work on projects in the developing world, we were able to set up a "build" in October 2008. Laura and a group of enthusiastic and hardy volunteers spent one week working on the Gelai school project. Funds they raised went towards building materials and paying salaries of local crafts people such as bricklayers and carpenters.
During their week they laid foundations and built walls, all at the same time as having a fabulous opportunity to work alongside and get to know the Masai people of the region. The following month the roofs went on and the interior walls were plastered. The pictures at the top of this page show the completed classrooms, photographed by Mr. Karoli of ACEDE in December 08 - just in time for Christmas! By January 2009 the new classrooms will be furnished and in use. Not bad for a project that began in summer 2008!
In April 2009 Arlene Ferguson and Laura Ferguson organised for several of the group to return to Gelai, to paint the classrooms and to develop the first of many school links between UK schools and Tanzanian schools. In this case the link has been between the Biggar Learning Community in Scotland and Gelai School, Tanzania. Arlene, Laura and their team received a grant from the British Council, support from ACEDE, and help from CPA. All these organisations recognised that the exchange of educational ideas and practices and the networking across international boundaries could help both educational communities.
The visit did not simply develop a link between schools. Practical work was done in painting educational murals on the classroom walls to really brighten up the learning experience for the Masai children. Below you will see images from before and after the painting visit.
CPA is continuing to support Arlene and Laura Feguson in their project to develop school links between Scottish and Tanzanian schools.
Do you want to visit Tanzania and engage in a similar project? Visit the Charity Challenge web site and view Tanzanian community projects.