Education department
Through our following sections of education department we wanted to give opportunities to children and youth who have no access to education to achieve their dream and reach their goal of getting education, especially children from poor families around Kigamboni District. Every single section came for a reason due to our research survey for finding out the community need before founding KCC.
The KCC education department has 6 sections as follows with their descriptions;
1.1. Day Care program
As the government system announced in 2009 that all public schools should not take any child who cannot read and write in order to avoid too much work for the teachers and also give chance to small children to catch up something before starting class one in primary school. Since then many parents who has good income are sending their children to privet Nursery school which you have to pay every month around 40€ to 120€ per month which is not possible for poor family and especially in Kigamboni where many families has to live for one or two meals a day. There also some government Nursery schools which are cheaper but then all parents must pay for materials and food cost for their children which are also too expensive for them.
Due to this challenge in 2010 KCC we came up with an idea to open Nursery school for free for all children from poor families and provide same services as other children got from the other private or government Nursery schools.
KCC is providing all necessary need for about 70-90 children a year for the Nursery program like uniform though our sawing program with machines donated by Wings Of Support, text books and all education material like pencils, papers and colors for painting which again lots of education material comes from Wings Of Support.
Since the program started about 11 years ago KCC supported 781 children who managed trough to read and write and have a chance to join public school system without any problem. The beginning of school year in January 2021 we only managed to take 33 children due to lack of space and our financial problem while we already had 107 applications for children who want to join but we couldn’t take them. Peter Ustinov Foundation from Germany funded KCC to renovate the Nursery classes and add more space for children to play, rest and eat so that they can feel comfortable while their at KCC. The renovation will be done end of February 2022 before we start the new program in the beginning of March 2022.
The kid’s normally using three classes and we call it baby class, middle class and top class.
Each class has 1 teacher which makes a total of three teachers who are working with
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1.2. Drop out school program
The government system say the children who allowed to join public primary school should be between 6-7 years old and if their above that age there is no chance for them to get primary education. This system through lots of children out for getting education as many families here in Kigamboni they don’t really much care that kids has to start school and has the right to get education, this coursed by family poverty and enough public awareness to the community. Also many children due to family challenges had to move from one place to another because of death of their parents and moving to other relatives without any documents which can allow them to rejoin school to place where they moved.
Some other children have left home and decided to go on the street due to family poverty, abused and or violence.
Then in 2009 KCC started a drop out school program to give second chance to drop out school children with special two years program before we ask local public schools to give a chance for those kids to sit on the special exam while after passing this exam they will have chance to join normal public school system.
Since KCC we have been partnering really well with different level of the government and since 2009 we managed to support more 1378 children who were not supposed to get education due to the government system.
In this program we normally have two level of classes, level one are the beginners and level two are the one expected to sit for the final exam in order to rejoin the public school system.
For this program we have four teachers who are professional qualified and one assistance teacher who is an qualified.
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1.3. Tuition (classes after school)
The Government secondary school is for free but in order to get the chance the only thing they need is your pass from the end of your primary school exams, also there are a lots of private secondary schools where you can join easier when you fail the primary school but you have to pay around 800€-1,200€ per year without including material as you can understand none of local families can afford this.
So for the children and their families is the kind of competition to be able to get the chance to go to public school which makes the families which are earning a bit more money are sending their children from very beginning of their primary education to private tuition for preparing them to perform well in their last exam of primary education so that then get avoid paying so much money in case they fail to go to public schools. But for the children comes from poor families they cannot go to those private tuition because of financial problem as they have to pay about 10€-20€ per month plus material and transportation. This challenge make many children to loose opportunity for the further education which already a big problem for their future and their families in general.
KCC has the first tuition program in 2007 when we found the project in order to give chance every child in Kigamboni who the family cannot afford pay the tuition fee to come for free and prepare them in very beginning to be able to pass their last primary education exam to join public secondary school. We are offering the tuition service to more than 150 children every day and preparing them very well for sitting in their last exam.
We offer tuition service and help them with home works to children from Nursery to class seven which is the last class of primary school in Tanzania education system. We already offered tuition program to more than 20,000 children from the beginning of KCC and 92% they managed to join public secondary schools.
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1.4. Lerner scholarship program
Yes secondary and primary schools are free but still the parents has to pay all materials for school like uniform, exercise and text books, they also have to pay money for food and transport for their children to manage to go to school.
To help this KCC we have special program we called it Lerner scholarship program which started 2010, we are looking for individual sponsors to support each child who the parent can’t afford anything for their children to go to secondary school and ask them to sponsor them. But also not only for secondary school KCC is giving scholarship to our local volunteers to get their qualification in university or colleges in order to KCC to give professional service to the community.
98% of our volunteers/staff got qualification through KCC scholarship program by sending them to universities or colleges in different professionals. These make KCC really sustainable and increasing the spirit of the organization in the sense of ownership to our volunteers and or staffs. Already 13 local volunteers/staffs are qualified through this program.
Also already 72 children have been supported by this program to get chance to continue with their education in secondary level and high school.
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1.5. Computer and language class
KCC is offering computer and language classes to children and youth in order to prepare them for job market competition and other opportunity.
I normal life people in Kigamboni and many other places in Tanzania have never has the chance even to touch the keyboard or mouse of the computer and this is really true thing.
We have seen many people who even working from the government offices they can’t use computer at all. And for us we realized that is very necessary and important to offer this class of computer at the KCC and even expand to give also class to the adults since they have never use computer in their entire life.
Since WOS started to send us goodies including computers and other accessories we have more opportunity to offer class to many community members. We give computer class since 2010 and more than 672 community member were benefit including all our staffs/volunteers.
Last year we had total of 83 students and 32 of them they got jobs to local stores, beach hotels and stationaries. But there also many students were able to join the colleges and universities with well understanding of using computer.
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1.6. Library
In Kigamboni there was only two libraries one at Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Memorial Academy collage and one it’s called Kigamboni Community library.
Mwalimu Nyerere library is only allow students who studying there and no children have a chance to go to read or borrow book to take home, and the Kigamboni Community library they charging a fee to be a member or you have to pay every time when you go depend how many hours you spend in there. Also they don’t allow anyone to take book home.
And because the community of Kigamboni have law income no many family could send their kids to the library which for them most important is daily meal and library is not necessary at all.
This it’s give lots of problem to the children and young people because in public schools they have not many book for each child and normally one book is used for more than ten kids which means they can only use in school but not taking it home.
In 2010 KCC we started our library to give chance to every community member of Kigamboni to have access for reading different books as well magazines.
We open our library Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm where students from public schools can come and read as well borrow books and return after one week of less depends on their needs.
On top of that in 2012 we started to do mobile library when we got our fist tuk tuk donated by WOS. Every Saturday from 2pm to 3:30 we are taking our books down to the street and we put them in the mat before welcome children who pass around and put them in the group to ready together with them some stories etc. Also tell them about KCC in general and what we offer for then also to get the chance to join KCC for more services. This program help us so much to reach many children and inform many people about our works, that’s why now KCC is known everywhere in Kigamboni and the number of children is increasing every time.
Where did we have the books? In 2010 our first partner education organization from UK called read international brought us more than 300 different books and also local organization called Femina Hip brought us 100 magazine every three month, when we had those books we thought to start the library. And 2014 another organization from the UK brought big container 40x20 ft. and give KCC an opportunity to distribute books to more than 50 schools and different institutions on whole Tanzania. We had lots of books remaining so we could fill our library with many books and to reach many kids and youth who wants to read.
Since the library starts we already reach more than 15,000 children and youth who come to ready the books or borrow.