The Sawe Story
This is a story many year in the making…..
The Sawe community leaders had long since had a vision of building a primary school in their community because they were concerned about
· the distances their children were walking.
· the quality of education they were getting in overcrowded classrooms, and
· the inability of the school to provide a comprehensive school meal programme.
In 2010, LTT were working at this school, renovating and building classrooms, toilets and trying to address the school meal problem. We had brough volunteers to the school to help with this and we were invited to bring them to Sawe to experience their culture, their way of life and share food with them. As our friendships grew we were asked to support a women’s group who wanted to establish a pig breeding programme, which later morphed into a success savings and loans programme that is still running to this day.
It is through our collaboration together that we learned of their movements to build a school, they had applied for land and gained permission and already gained donations from with the community and in 2016 they shared their vision with us and formally asked if we would partner with them.
We held a series of community wide meetings where we gauged the collective enthusiasm and we explained that IF they fed all the students, dug the foundations and provided the materials to head height and ensured that their children attended school each and every day, then we would support them. This was put to the vote, and all publicly agreed.
In 2017 we brought our first, and it turned out our only, volunteers Jade and Bjorn who worked alongside 100 community members to build the walls and prepare the foundations for the first floors. There was a celebratory air. Later that year we added the toilets and a basic kitchen and by January 2018 Kindergarten and Standard 1 enrolled and were fed.
Since then, we have worked together with various UK donor partners to ensure, every year, more classrooms were added. In January 2024 those first Standard 1 students became Standard 7 students and in October 2024 they sit their final exams before moving on to secondary school. Our expectations are very high.
On 21st March 2024 LTT invited the community, the Town Council, the teachers and students to lunch, to celebrate what we have achieved together, and we celebrated with huge pride and feasting and much laughter. The partnership was strong because we had open, honest and timely communications, because both sides respected and trusted each other, and both sides delivered what they said they would. Together we built
16 classrooms, one used as a library
2 teachers offices
3 toilet blocks
1 kitchen with store
Each classroom has desks for 45 students, a teachers table and chair and a cupboard. The teachers office has a desk and chair for each teacher, and cupboards, a gas burner for brewing tea and a photocopier. The Head Teacher has a desk and chair and visitors tables and chairs, and a bench, a laptop and a safe for storage of confidential papers. The book to student ratio throughout the school is approximately 1:1
The school is connected to the mains water , but to keep the water bills low, we have installed 155,000 litres of rainwater storage with guttering.
Knowing that 700 young people are going to get educated in “the best government primary school in the Manyara Region” (Town Education Officer) bring nothing but joy. We wish them and those who follow all the very best.
