Transforming Tanzanian schools with Technology

Menstruation is an additional challenge girls face in the schools we support. 

Many cannot afford any pads and simply stay at home when they have their period, meaning they miss a lot of school and fall behind. 

Also many schools, and parents, fail to teach girls anything about menstruation. 

We are trying to address this by supporting girls clubs and providing with matrons and female staff with suitable low cost resources including films they can show through their projector.

We are also supporting a group to make low cost washable pads to distribute to the girls, but this is a huge challenge as the need is so wide spread. 

Thank you again so much for your support. 

Best wishes from rural Tanzania. 

There's a power cut as usualso I'm having to write this on a phone with low battery so cannot add any photos

The preform one classes we are supporting have been underway in 8 schools since the end of September, benefitting over 700 students who would otherwise not be in school. 

This initiative, which we started last year, has had huge impact on the students. Primary schools are taught in Swahili, and so pupils struggle to adapt to their lessons taught in English when they start secondary school.  This programme gives them a good foundation for this transition by teaching the vocabulary they will need for their new subjects in a fun and engaging way.

Often schooling in Tanzania can be quite didactic and instructional.  In this programme teachers have used group work, games and songs to make the learning fun and encourage students to make friends with their peers.  This has been paying dividends with students making good progress and reporting how much they enjoy this way of learning.

One of the ways we have been promoting this is via a very active WhatsApp group with teachers from all of the 8 schools. They have shared photos, videos and reources that they have used, and asked questions and given advice.  This has proved to be extremely useful, particularly as these schools are in rural locations where there are few opportunities for ongoing professional development.

One of the most interesting conversations we have had recently is on the issue of menstruation and how much of an issue this is.  Many teachers and students are very embarrassed to talk about this, there are few resources and often girls cannot access the protection they need and so we are starting to work with school matrons to resolve this and have applied for supplies of reusable pads from Afripads. 

Thank you again for your support and best wishes for the festive season.