CCQ-Makunduchi Ongoing Partnership

The Community College of Qatar has an ongoing partnership with Makunduchi Secondary School, established in 2017. Makunduchi is a small, economically disadvantaged town on the Southern coast of Zanzibar’s Unguja Island. The town has little by way of industry, natural resources, or other sources of income for Makunduchi’s residents. In spite of this, people in Makunduchi continue to persevere and do the best with the resources available to them. They are accommodating and congenial toward visitors, and there is virtually no crime of any kind in the area. It is apparent to outsiders, however, that Makunduchi’s residents are not well off in a material sense. This was particularly evident (for the CCQ team) at the local secondary school, where more than 8oo students attend daily in facilities that are barely able to contain them.Makunduchi Secondary School has stood where it is currently located for more than a hundred years (the school was founded in 1903), and it has been well maintained. The school lacks basic modern infrastructure, however; there is limited Internet access, there are only a handful of computers for students to use, most of the classrooms do not have electric power, and basic resources for students’ classroom use are scarce.   Since the inception of our partnership, we have made 2 faculty teambuilding visits (2017 and 2018), and our first CCQ student enrichment visit (2019).From April 28th to May 5th 2017, members of the Community College of Qatar's ELC Community Service Committee and several faculty volunteers worked in Zanzibar, Tanzania, offering assistance to teachers and students at the Makunduchi Secondary School in Makunduchi, Zanzibar. The college volunteers spent the week working with students and teachers, providing instruction for students, professional development opportunities for teachers, and generous donations from the greater CCQ community. During the week, the ELC faculty members were able to experience life in a small village in Zanzibar and better understand the challenges that students and teachers face in developing countries. Specifically, they were able to get a sense of the barriers that exist between the needs of public education systems and the successful implementation of educational programs in economically disadvantaged regions of the world.Despite the lack of resources, however, both the students and the teachers displayed a high level of enthusiasm and warmth toward their guests from CCQ. They were eager to learn and were very receptive to the presence of the volunteers and what they had brought to Makunduchi. The team was able to adapt quickly to the school environment and gain a greater understanding of teaching in a completely different context. We all benefitted a great deal from our teaching experience in Makunduchi both on a professional and personal level and it will forever stand as a testament that the community service remit of CCQ can stretch far and beyond the shores of Qatar.Since the partnership was formed in April 2017, funds have been raised to improve the physical attributes of the school. Enough money was raised to construct a block of 3 brand new classrooms, which were formally opened on January 29th, 2018, by Mr. Idrissa Kitwana Mustafa, the District Commissioner of Southern Zanzibar, and his accompanying delegation. The addition of bigger, brighter study areas will have a lasting benefit to the school for many years to come, where it is often the case that 50-60 students crowd a classroom, hoping to access the taught material in the best way they can.  In addition, funds raised by the The Makunduchi Project Team over the years have also allowed us to:* Construct an additional room to provide a private teacher’s lounge, freeing up the library space for students to study and utilize the resources available.  * Paint the school each year. * Deliver hundreds of kilograms of stationary and school supplies. * Purchase new and updated textbooks and teaching materials. * Install electricity in 3 classrooms, allowing for after hours tutoring, which increased the number of students passing their Form 4 exams, granting them access to a higher education! * Donate several used laptops to the computer lab.* Purchase science equipment for chemistry classes to help with practice application of concepts learned, resulting in higher science scores of Form 4 students.* Purchase the school’s first ever projector and photo copier. * Provide Internet access to the school and local community. * Donate blood sugar monitors to the local hospital.* Provide food for the local nursery school. In our last visit in 2019, we chaperoned 4 female CCQ students on a student enrichment and volunteering trip.  The impact of that trip still resonates in the hearts of both the CCQ students and the Makunduchi Community.In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been unable to make any in-person visits. However, we are continuing to support Makunduchi Secondary School financially from afar.  We hope to resume our visits in 2022 when travel restrictions are more relaxed (Inshallah).Please consider donating to this noble cause. Your generosity will be felt for generations!(*An itemized budget of expenses is available.)____________________________________________________________