My name is Emma, and I am a high-school student from Los Angels, California hoping to raise money for the Lwandai Lutheran School in Mlalo, Tanzania. My grandmother (or Bibi, as we call her) attended this school in the 1950s and I grew up hearing stories about this joyful place that taught her so much about the world beyond her rural village. It was a life changing experience for her and by turns, for our family.

I had the privilege of visiting the Lwandai School in the summer of 2024 with my Bibi and my mom. We found it to be in disrepair. Classroom ceilings were crumbling and water damaged. This saddened my Bibi whose fond memories recalled pristine, white washed walls and buildings standing tall and proud against the equatorial sun. I determined on that summer day in the Usambara Mountains to do what I could to help the school rebuild its crumbling infrastructure.

Lwandai Lutheran School is an all girls boarding school that provides a life changing education to its students who arrive at its doors from local rural communities and from across the country. The education my Bibi received there provided a foundation that launched her into a life full of promise and purpose. It is on her shoulders that I am here today, living the life that she imagined as a little girl in her small mountain village.

3.2 million kids aged 7-17 drop out of school in Tanzania. 1.2 million kids have never seen the inside of a classroom. Rural and low income girls are most affected, normally dropping out around the age of 12, if they even get the opportunity to go. The Lwandai Lutheran Secondary School in Mlalo has sheltered and educated thousands of children for over a hundred years.

In spite of its crumbling buildings and sparse classroom supplies the Lwandai School continues to change the lives of dozens of Tanzanian girls each and every day.

I hope you will join me in helping to raise $1,700USD to rebuild and renew its campus and provide a safe and inspiring space for future generations of Tanzanian girls to learn and to dream.

Thank you!