Over the last few months, our So They Can team in Tanzania has been running one of our newest projects; Camp Africa. The project has been developed to build connections across our schools and their communities, creating a confident and engaged generation of students. 

 

The project consisted of 3 stages of activities, which started with 11 schools being invited to participate in October. The schools sent parents, students and headteachers to represent their school, where we introduced the project and sought participation from the schools. In November we took a co-design approach, asking each school to develop activities in 3 categories; Teacher Capability (sharing and developing resources to lift the quality of teaching), Community and Culture from parents (building knowledge of different cultures and celebrating diversity) and Student Confidence and Education activities. 6 schools chose to participate and designed their activities, which granted them an invitation to the final activity; a camping trip at Tarangire National Park. 

 

50 students, 6 teachers and a number of parents joined our Camp Africa team at Tarangire National Park for 2 days of activities and learning. There are many different communities in the Manyara region, including Assa, Gorowa, Kw’adza, Mbugwe, Datooga, Maasai and Barabaig and Irakw, which is the largest ethinic group in the region. It was amazing to see the students, teachers and parents come together to participate in activities on neutral ground.

 

During the Camp, parents taught the students cultural songs and dancing, students and teachers played Twister, put their art skills to practice with painting and drawing, set goals for their own education, shared in reading and storytelling and even had a tour of the National Park where they learned about animals, resource management and protection of the environment. 

 

Delfina, our Head of Education said “there was a noticeable change in the students over the two days. They arrived quite shy and scared – many of them had never had a night away from their homes and families before, let alone been camping among wild animals. But after two days of activities, the students left excited and desperate to return!” 

 

The feedback so far has been unbelievably positive. One student from Ng’wang’weri Primary School shared, “I made so many new friends and learned a lot about my country. I can’t wait to come back! I really enjoyed camping and I’m going to work very hard in my studies so that next year I come to Tarangire National Park.”

 

We can’t wait to host more students and schools in our Camp Africa project in 2021!

 

Keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages for more amazing stories and beautiful photos from our communities in East Africa.