Education
A quality education is one of the greatest gifts you can be given in life and is the best tool to overcome poverty.
The ChallEnge
Rural communities face many challenges when trying to get their children formally educated.
• Rural poverty refers to the concept of “out of sight out of mind” which results in neglect, insufficient allocation of funds resulting a lack teaching and learning resources, poor school infrastructure, insufficient qualified teaching staff and poor teacher retention levels.
• Guidance and support is often lacking where parents have not themselves been formally educated and can be exacerbated by a lack of female teachers to nurture and council girls and those with special needs.
• Household poverty levels can vary depending on the rainfall and farming successes. In bad years the lack of food/income at home and at school can lead to stunted personal development, ill health or a redeployment of children into the fields to work.
• Socio-economic and broader issues such as gender inequalities leading to extra chores, early marriages, and other factors that might lead to girls dropping out. There is of course a growing digital divide with rural schools and students lacking the necessary digital infrastructure and devices.
Our Strategy
Our strategy is to work through our local and senior coproduction teams. The local coproduction team is made up of the School Development Committees (Headteacher, teachers, students and parents), the Village Leaders, the Ward Education, Agricultural and Health Officers, Impact Lead Tanzania and us. Together we discuss the challenges and explore how to address them. The senior coproduction team is made up of the Town Director and his departmental heads (Economist, Planner, Education, Agriculture, Youth and Community Development), Impact Lead Tanzania and us. Together we look at the bigger picture, Region and National Strategies and available resources.
We focus on infrastructure improvements; teacher support, self-reliance, student health and community participation.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND RESOURCES
Through participatory development techniques we work with the community and other stakeholders to transform dangerous, overcrowded and under resourced schools into a bright, inspirational and well resourced environment where all feel safe to teach and learn.
There are so many primary and secondary schools within Babati that are in need of support to either renovate, complete or build classrooms, teachers’ offices, kitchens with storerooms and toilets.
Mikuyu Tanzania is working as fast as resources allow to enable students to flourish so that they can progress and succeed at secondary school.
18,783 Students have benefited from an improved learning environment
BUNK BEDS
Secondary school students often have very long commutes to their nearest secondary schools, sometimes up to 90 minutes walk each way. The journey can be perilous, with snakes, hyenas and other dangerous wild animals along the way. They an also experience sexual and physical harassment and abuse. This is especially dangerous for the girls.
By providing bunk beds for dormitories built by the community with local government support, students are able to stay at school, avoid the dangerous tiring commute and spend more time on their studies.
We also provide guidance on how to develop suitable safeguarding procedures to ensure the students are protected from harm.
166 BUNK BEDS HAVE BEEN INSTALLED ACROSS 4 secondary SCHOOLS for 332 girls.
TEACHER TRAINING AND SUPPORT
When a school lack vision it is very hard to motivate the teachers, students and community as to what the education is trying to achieve.
Through our pilot Elimisha Walimu (Leaders of Learning) Programme, Head and Deputy Head Teachers and Ward Education Officers are learning about school management and how to engage the community and the teachers in creating a vision that addresses both academic and character building qualities of their charges.
This pilot programme, in partnership with the NGO Aprender and the Babati Town Council, has the potential to be rolled out across all of Babati Town and even into the District.
18 Educationalists are engaged in this pilot covering 5 Primary schools
“I was amazed to witness this tremendous level of project acceptance by not only the Community but also the Government.
This speaks of the impact of such projects, and the rigor in stakeholder engagement done by the Livingstone Tanzania Trust (now Mikuyu Tanzania), in not only implementation but also planning and designing of these community projects.
Congratulations 👏👏👏
”
SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL FARMS
Every parent wants their child to be well fed and healthy. In schools we partner with they are required to contribute maize, beans, firewood and a small amount of money towards the provision of a lunch time meal. Whilst the provison of dried goods is fantastic, the children also need friit and vegetables - perishables. It is not affordable/possible to buy these everyday, but it is possible to grow them.
A school farm is not without challenges, from watering and water security, to planting, weeding, pest control and harvesting. Who is to do this work? Where does the money come from when schools aready lack sufficient income to meet their own needs?
Our Sustainable School Farm Model requires initial investment from both external sources and from the community, but once up and running will generate money to cover its own costs and even conribute to the schools running costs.
Current Partner Schools
Kiongozi Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: Part of the school was very old and part relatively new. To date we have demolished half of the old classrooms and, completed 3 bomas and built 3 new classrooms from scratch, there is a clear need for a proper kitchen and food store. We have provided a photocopier.
Market Garden: The lack of water in this area, makes a full market garden a challenge, we are exploring options
Community Engagement: The community have built new toilets on their own and invested on bomas and whilst the feeding in not yet 100% it is their aim. We have worked with the community on some agriculture and enterprise programmes.
ChemChem Primary Sch
Infrastructure and Resource: There are some quite new classrooms but the older ones are dark, unsafe and new ones are needed. There is a single teachers house that is in a state of dereliction but lived in all the same. We are in the process of building 2 x 2 in 1 teacher house blocks. We have improved water security but there is more to do. We have improved the food store and provided PICS bag for improved food security but the kitchen needs improving.
Market Garden: The lack of water is a challenge for any markte garden, so this needs to be addressed first.
Community Engagement: this community has been very supportin in the building process for the teachers houses and are motivated to do more as and when needed.
Sendo Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: A double classroom block with teachers office was left part built for 5 years, before we arrived and improved it. Yet there are 6 more classrooms that need more support as they have hazzardous roofs and are dark and uninspiring. The kindergarten toilets were poorly designed and incomplete but we have redesigned and completed them and in 2026 we will build new toilets for the boys and girl as the existing ones are unsafe. We have provided a photocopier, We have to date installed 22,000 litres of rainwater harvesting to work alongside the solar powered pump that was already there.
Market Garden: The school has a greenhouse where they grow vegetables and some banana trees, all are irrigated from the borehole. There is plenty of scope for expansion
Community Engagement: To date the community haven been very supportive and eager to get invovled.
Mutuka Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: This school has several classrooms that are left at the 80% competed stage and investment can transform the school. It has one poor teacher’s houses, an unsatisfactory kithen and food store.
Market Garden: They have tried to establish a very small garden to grow greens for student lunch which shows great eagerness but water is a challenge.
Community Engagement: We have not to date done any work with the school and the community.
Gendi Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: This school, started by the British in the 1940’s was struggling and needed a full renovation. We renovated 12 classrooms and 3 teachers offices, installed 270,000 litres of water/rainwater storage and drilled a borehole powered by a solar pump. We built new toilets for the teachers, and students. We installed over 100 new desks and hundreds of books with bookshlves and a photocopier. We built a kitchen with fuel efficient stoves and storage space for food and firewood.
Market Garden: We established a large, fenced in market garden, with drip irrigation, for fruit trees, vegetables and greens.
Community Engagement: Our 5th school, we renovated with full community engagement and participation with parents feeding their children
Sawe Primary School
Infrastructure and resources: We have built, with community engagement, 16 classrooms and two teachers offices, toilets for boys, girls and teachers, a kitchen and store. Each has been fitted out with tables, chairs desks, cupboards and hundreds and books and a photocopier. There is rainwater harvesting with 155,000 litres of water storage. We also connected the school to the mains water supply.
Market Garden: Whilst we have planted some fruit trees, the lack of land makes this urban school unsuited for a market garden
Community Engagement: The community have been excellent, with great leadership, commitment and engagement. We have worked with them on Enterprise, savings and loans and pig breeding programmes. The school was handed over to the community in March 2024 and 100% of the student who sat their National Standard 7 exams in September 2024 passed.
Partner School outside of Babati
Oldenderti Primary Sch
Infrastrucure and Resource: This school is working with (UK charity) Made with Hope and we have no responsibilbity for classrooms and learning resources
Market Garden: We have worked with Made with Hope and their local partners Ndoto in Action to create a self-sustaining school farm. The Banana crop will be sold to fund the farm hand and surplus fruit will be eaten by the students. the farm hand also grows a variety of local vegetables to enhance the school lunch. The plot has 450,000lits of water storage.
Community engagement: the community were hevily invoveld in the preperation of the market garden.
Previous Schools
Waangwaray Primary Sch
Infrastructure and Resources: This was our first school where we revamped all the classrooms and built 3 more and built teachers toilets. We completed 2 teachers houses started by the community. We built a kitchen with a fuel efficient stove, brought electricity to the school, added desks, a satellite dish, laptops, a photocopier and hundreds of books.
School Farm: After hearing that parents were struggling to afford costs of secondary schools we opted to start a school farm to demonstrate best practice. This required drilling a borehole which we also connected to the school. With the help of a local agricultural expert we established a large farm with fruit trees, cows, goats, ducks, chickens, fish and bees and a large space for greens and other vegetables. Our Farm won an award in 2010 for the “Best Farm in Babati”
Community Engagement: We started a feeding programme in collaboration with the community. We brought water and electricity to the school,. We build a large school farm with cows, goats, chickens, ducks and fish ponds, a farm store and office. Bee hives were installed in the local forested area and tree nurseries established. We ran Agriculture, Enterprise and Savings and Loans Programmes within the community. We handed the completed school back to the community in 2018.
Frederick sumaye SecOndary SCHool
Infrastructure and Resources: We have built a kitchen with fuel efficient stoves and a store, drilled a borehole for water, added a toilet block to a dormitory and added bunk beds, we added a hygiene cubicle for the girls toilets and upgraded the existing ones. we provided 2 laptops for school administration.
Market Garden: we planted a few trees at the school and encouraged a market garden, but school participation was not great on this.
Community Engagement: Community engagement was limited, but this was an early project and we did not ask for much.
Daghaloy and Harra Primary Schools
Infrastructure and Resources: Through the Tubaki Shuleni Salama programme we built new toilets at Daghaloy and Harra Primary Schools
Market Garden: N/a
Community Engagement: The community provided material and dug the foundations.
Sinai Primary School
Infrastructure and resources: Our second school partnership, we revamped existing classrooms, teacher offices and built 4 classrooms including a special needs classroom, and a store. We brought water and electricity to the school, built student and teachers toilets . We built a kitchen from which we started a school meals programme. We bought desks and hundreds of books
Market Garden: There was very little land available to grow food, but we planted some fruit trees and greens for a small market garden. We struggled against the birds that enjoyed the produce more than the students.
Community Engagement; We established a school meals programme but sadly community participation fell below our required levels for the feeding programme and school maintenance and we stopped working with the community and school in 2012. We ran enterprise, savings and loans and a pig programmes within the community.
Maisaka and Hangoni Primary Schools
School Infrastructure and resources: We did not partner with these communities but reacted to desperate need within each school. At Maisaka we completed 2 ‘bomas”. A Boma is a classroom or block of classrooms, started by the community with the promise that the Government would complete them, but sadly funds were not forthcoming and the needs were urgent. At Hangoni, the existing kindergarten wwas in a hazardous state and we were asked to intervene before any students came to harm. All were fully fittied out with desks, tables and chairs
Market garden. Maisaka teachers tried to establish their own garden but water issues prevented success, but they were successful in growing staple crops of maize and beans.
Community engagement - n/a
Managha Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: We revamped the whole school and built a new kindergarten and a multi-purpose room that has the potential to be a double classroom when needed. We brought water and electricity to the school and established a biogas fed kitchen. We established a satellite dish with laptops and a photocopier. We completed the building of one teacher’s house. We added hundred of books
Market Garden: We established a livestock area with cattle, chickens and fruit trees plus a separate fenced in area for fruit trees + vegetables + fish pond. The garden was used to provide enterprise training to the students and resulted in us winning two awards for “Enterprise in Education” from Teach a Man to Fish & The Saville Foundation - 2013 we were Pan African runners up and in 2014 we were best in Tanzania.
Community Engagement: Our 3rd school where we started to change our partnership model from donor to partner, requiring the community to commit to certain standards of engagement, including provision of school meals and contributions to building materials. We have run Agriculture and Enterprise Training Programmes within the community. We handed the competed school back to the community in 2022
Mutuka Secondary school
Infrastructure and Resources: When a teacher from Waangwaray transferred to Mutuka and started to introduce some of our ideas into this secondary school we wanted to support him. We supported the transition from open fire to fuel efficiency and with the savings made he built storage shelves in his chemistry lab’s storage room. In a community wide project in partnership with Bawasa (Babati Water and Sanitation Department) we laid fresh pipes from the source across farm lands, to the school and local homes. This significantly improved their water security and allowed us to build new toilets for the students and enabled the community to build a dormitory where we have provided bunk beds.
Market Garden: The school have established their own garden, which we have provided mentoring
Community Engagement: Very good engagement, we have run Agricultural and Livelihoods Training Programmes in the community.
Malangi Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: This very rural school was a failing school that was due to be closed because of the poor condition of the classrooms. We revamped 8 classrooms and built 3 new ones, added a kitchen with fuel efficient stove, teacher and student toilets. We added 114,000 litres of rainwater storage at the school, with 40,000 at the market garden. We completed the building of 2 teachers houses and built 4 more. We brought water to the school. We added over a hundred new desks, book shelves, hundreds of books.
Market Garden: In this very arid area we build fake roofs and installed rainwater harvesting connected to drip irrigation. The farm was partially under net shading due to the intense heat, with side netting protection crops from the bugs. The raised bed mandala garden focused on greens. Fruit trees and vines were also planted.
Community Engagement: Our 4th school where we improved further our participatory approach with whole community engagement. We have run Agriculture and Enterprise Training Programmes within the community.
Ziwani Primary School
Infrastructure and Resources: The poor state of the toilets was brought to our attention, along with the lack of disabled toilet facilities for their disabled students. We therefore build new toilets for boys and girls and disabled block for either gender. As a result of our work another NGO drilled a borehole for the school. We have also provided a fuel efficient stove for school meals
Market Garden: N/a
Community Engagement: The community engaged every step of the way.
Bambay Primary School
School Infrastructure and resources: We started by drilling a borehole which enabled student toilets to be renovated and new teacher toilets to be built. We then built a kitchen with fuel efficient stoves and storage rooms. In December 2023 in partnership with the community we built and handed over 2 more classrooms to ease the overcrowding.
Market Garden: The school have seen other school farms and have opted to plant banana trees around the school premises
Community engagement: Our 7th school and has been developed with fantastic community collaboration with the community feeding their children and providing labour and materials for renovation and construction work. We have been running Agriculture and Enterprise Training with the community.
Kwara and Kwaang Secondary Schools
Infrastructure and Resources: Seeing the quantities of firewood being consumed by open fires at these two schools prompted us to take immediate action. At Kwara we build a kitchen and firewood store, while at Kwaang we added fuel efficient stoves. At Kwara we also supported the addition of a satellite dish.
Market Garden: N/a
Community Engagement; N/a
Babati Day Sec Sch
Infrastructure and Resources: At the behest of the Head Teacher, we visited this secondary school and witnessed the poor state of the toilets, especially the girls toilets. Door were missing, so were hand washing facilities and there was nowhere for girls to manage their periods. With 500 girls using just 8 working yet unsanitary cubicles, and after consultation with both the girls and the boys we agreed to support them. The new girls toilets were completed by the end of April 2024 and the boys toilets were completed in September 2024. The impact has been significant in that zero students now go to hospital each week (previously 10) with toilet hygiene related issues. Student have the freedom to eat and drink as they need without fear of using the toilets.
Market Garden: N/a
Community Engagement: Excellent engagement by community students and teachers.
Sigino Secondary School
Infrastructure and Resources: We never like to see schools with awful toilets which is why we have also worked at this school. Not only improving the hygiene but also adding a cubicle for the girls to manage their periods in safety and with dignity.
Market Garden: N/a
Community Engagement: Good with the building process and collaboration on the menstrual hygiene programme.
From start to finish
