Last summer, we made a “third aim” grant of £8,900 to a wonderful UK-based charity called Made with Hope. A brand new school, CHETI Secondary, is now open thanks in part to this grant. Made with Hope should be very proud of bringing the very first secondary school to Nadaoito, a disadvantaged rural community near the city of Arusha. We are so thrilled with how everything has turned out, and wish all CHETI Secondary pupils and staff all the best of luck in the school’s first year!
A school Made with Hope
We met with Elearnor Riley, Made with Hope’s founder, in Spring 2018. This is a very small Manchester-based charity. It’s been run mostly by Eleanor who has dedicated much of her adult life to a brilliant cause. Made with Hope has been a long term partner of a Tanzanian NGO called CHETI. Together, they provide buildings and education in one community near Arusha. The hope, in all of their work, has been to break the cycle of poverty seen in this disadvantaged community. The partnership had already supported four primary schools, and was within touching distance of opening their very first secondary school.
The plan was to build a new private school, CHETI Secondary, for disadvantaged children in rural Arusha. The education would be of a very high quality compared to Tanzanian government schools. That would be key to giving students a real chance of escaping poverty. The project encompassed:
Building 6 classrooms and 1 biology lab
Building 10 girls toilets
Installing 3 rain water harvesting units & 2 hand washing stations
Providing desks, chairs and other essential resources including over 100 text books
After hearing about CHETI Secondary, the Trustee were unanimous in our support for this project. We agreed to provide the £8,900 needed to complete CHETI Secondary. We were extremely grateful to St Mary’s School, Melrose – some stellar fundraising by its pupils gave us a massive head start in funding our contribution to CHETI Secondary.
Why was this school needed?
Nadaoito is a very rural community near the city of Arusha, Tanzania. Made with Hope identified a desperate need to provide the very first secondary school for this community. The school would provide an essential education for 250 local students.
Despite being only 11km from Arusha, the closest city, there are no public transport links to Nadasoito yet. Further to that, the community does not have access to clean drinking water or electricity. The majority of residents live in extreme poverty; in cramped mud huts with poor sanitation facilities, almost no job opportunities, and no secondary schools or opportunities for vocational studies.
Only 30% of Tanzanian children attend secondary school, with the majority of students attending from urban areas. Without continuing education, it is near impossible for families on communities like Nadaito to break out of poverty. Further, it’s common for children to end up in child labour. Another route to survival for girls is being forced into early marriage.
CHETI Secondary will offer very high quality education from dedicated teachers. This will give students the chance to gain GCSE equivalent qualifications that will give them the opportunity to get out of the poverty cycle that affects so many of the residents in the local communities. Over the next few years this school will become a central hub to many further projects, including rain water harvesting, girl empowerment, hand washing programmes and more. The impact is endless!
The Third Aim grant
We made a grant of £8,900 which was enough to complete 3 classrooms at CHETI Secondary. That included finishing the building works and building desks and chairs for the students. Made with Hope told us that the funding was critical in getting the school open in time for January 2019. Without the grant, the children would have had to wait until the beginning of the following academic year in 2020. Instead, it’s incredibly exciting to see so many children already thriving in their lessons at the school.
A transforming impact
It seems that the CHETI Secondary pupils have settled in well to their first term. Founder of Made with Hope, Eleanor Riley, visited the school part way into the first term to see how they were getting on. She said:
We hosted an opening ceremony for the secondary school. Lots of parents, village leaders and hundreds of members of the community joined us to see the school officially open. I was truly overwhelmed by how many people turned up. I know this school is going to help provide better futures for the children of this community. I’m so pleased that Hazels Footprints Trust has been able to help make it happen. So we are sending a huge thank you from us all here at Made With Hope
While in Tanzania, Eleanor also caught up with Zuma, CHETIs School Director. He said:
This school is going to transform this community. We are very excited to take on the challenge of educating hundreds of secondary school children. Our education is always very high quality and helps the poorest of children. Our education will give children a real chance to get out of poverty. I grew up as an orphan in poverty and I know that education changed my life. Me and my teachers will ensure every child reaches their potential. Every child matters to us.
