The Meserani Project
U.K. Registered Charity no. 1135670
www.meseraniproject.co.uk
www.facebook.com/meseraniproject
It was 2011 when I visited Erimus Rotary to do a presentation about The Meserani Project, and following the presentation eleven members volunteered to sponsor individual pupils through their secondary education in Tanzania. Since then various members have sponsored 18 pupils to go to secondary school, 3 students to go to vocational college, 3 students to study A’ Levels and 4 students to study university degrees. Further to this, 8 pupils have gone to secondary school and 8 students have started A’ Levels through sponsors who are associated with Erimus Rotary. In 2018 The Meserani Project received a €4,000 grant from Erimus Rotary’s European Fund, and this is being used to fund water harvesting and solar power at the new Meserani Secondary School. So it is clear that the commitment Erimus Rotary have made to the education of numerous young people in Tanzania, who were destined to receive no education, has been amazing.
We are currently working on submitting a Foundation Grant Application and Global Grant Application, to pay for vital resources that will be needed for the new Meserani Secondary School
The Meserani Project remains a ‘home-grown’ charity, supported by individuals and organisations such as Erimus Rotary, and because the project is run at their own expense by a group of six trustees from Teesside and North Yorkshire, and there are no administrative costs at all, every penny that is raised is spent directly on the project in Tanzania – nothing at all is syphoned off as necessary expenses
The primary focus is on providing primary, secondary, further and higher education for young people in an area of Tanzania where such education opportunities are not accessible to them due to poverty, family circumstances and lack of educational provision. We are a relatively small-scale charity, but since the sponsorship programme started in 2009 the charity has:
Supported 272 young people throughout various stages of their education.
265 pupils have attended one of seven secondary schools that we have links with.
91 students have started their two years of A’ Level studies.
13 students have started their two year Vocational Training Courses.
24 students have started Certificate and Diploma Courses at College or University.
53 students have started their three year Degree courses at university.
Further to ensuring that these young people have an education, we have also:
Built and furnished 14 classrooms in four primary schools.
Provided 31 water tanks for 6 schools.
Provided a dormitory for a girls’ boarding school.
Provided solar power for two schools and a clinic.
Provided water harvesting systems for a primary school and a clinic.
Renovated four teachers’ homes at a primary school.
Provided beds for 116 pupils at two secondary boarding schools.
Provided 80 desks and chairs for a boys’ secondary school.
Provided 70 desks and chairs for a primary school.
Provided laptops and projectors for a Vocational Training Centre.
Provided laptops and projectors for an Adult Learning Centre.
Provided whiteboards for three secondary schools and a Vocational Training Centre.
Planted 300 trees in two primary schools.
Provided a photocopier, printer, generator and TV/Video player for three schools.
The charity has evolved from these successes, and now has five current strands:
- Providing basic writing equipment, exercise books and textbooks for four primary schools: Meserani Juu School, Meserani Chini School, Lesiraa School and Losingira School.
- Sponsoring an increased number of students from the Meserani District to go through further and higher education, ranging from Vocational Courses right through to A’ Level studies and University Degree Courses.
- Our current major focus is the building of a new Meserani Secondary School – our most ambitious project to date.
Through engaging with the schools and communities identified above, the project aims to:
- Provide the young people with a decent education, thereby giving them an actual chance to make progress in their lives.
- Developing the independence necessary to escape poverty.
- Give the young people actual hope, and ambition.
- Give local communities and families pride in the achievements of their children.
