Neemah Secondary School: Support Accessible Education

Hi everyone, I am so excited to finally start sharing more about my experience over the past month and a half here at Neemah Secondary School in Arusha Tanzania. In the beginning, the plan for my time here in Africa was to dedicate my efforts towards local hospitals and daycares, but soon after I arrived, much of that changed after seeing what areas seriously lacked volunteer attendance and funding and that was the Secondary School system. For my first 3 weeks I was the only volunteer at Neemah and grew to care for the team of teachers and 220 students immediately, for it was rare for an organization like this to welcome new people in with open arms, but they did without hesitation. Not only have I found a home here teaching biology, chemistry and english, but a family among some of the most beautiful souls that I have ever met, and for that I am so grateful.

Neemah Secondary School was founded by the father of the current school director, Madam Eva. It was founded on the mission to promote a further education for girls who otherwise would be encouraged to marry or bare children after primary school, ending their academic career. Outreach is also conducted every 2 weeks by an english teacher here in Masai villages in rural Arusha marketing the school to children that are from impoverished homes, most of which whom attend Neemah tuition free. The admirable foundation of this boarding school comes with a cost, for the little incoming tuition that they do receive tends to go towards the quality of the education that is provided. The delegating of the funds allows an accessible higher education for these students, but leads to the neglect of funding for safe and clean living conditions, teachers salaries, food, and educational materials.

Due to the weak financial structure of the school and the struggle to balance the increasing expenses and the low incoming tuition we have reached out to work with the NGO based here in Tanzania, Selfless Solutions. They have been helping us conduct a larger campaign to hopefully help the school survive the year which will then give them time to step in officially in January since their efforts are currently being used at other projects.

Currently Neemah Secondary school has an emergency fund of 140,000tsh in their bank account ($54 usd).

I have been working to organize financial documents to get an idea of what the school needs to make it through this year and any documentation can be provided to those who are interested!

THE CURRENT SITUATION (updated on November 4, 2024)

The money that has been raised via this Go Fund Me and my Venmo = $2,200usd which has been used to buy the rest of the food for the year which will give the school time to organize things with the NGO in January.

The need now is the raise 18,454,000tsh ($6,855 usd) to cover the remaining costs for the year which include:

The teachers at Neemah all come here with a college degree which usually promises a starting monthly salary of ~600,000tsh, when the average monthly salary at Neemah is 330,000tsh since these teachers are dedicating their work towards something bigger. In the coming year this too will be a focus of change to give better conditions for the teachers as well.

One month of a teachers salary ~ $111 - $185usd

Meat for a month of meals for all 220 students ~ $143usd

Average Hospital bill cost for one month for the entire school ~ $15usd

In addition to the funds that I will be able to delegate to specific needs of the school, there is also space that needs to be filled by sponsors that are willing and able to provide tuition for certain students to either move forward to school outside of Masai villages, or to continue the education they have already started. This journey of sponsorship would be one that is more one-on-one, having a direct impact on the opening of a world of opportunities for a single student.

If you have any questions or simply want to hear stories from my time here please feel free to reach out because there’s so much more I wish I could share!

I will be posting regular updates and videos regarding where the donations are being used so you can see the direct impact of your contributions in the lives of these students.

Thank you so so much from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and support throughout everything! I can’t wait to share more throughout my next month and a half here!

If you prefer to share another way, feel free to do so via Venmo @Sydney-Pansing