Girls Ed’s partner organization, Project Wezesha, is based in Kigoma, Tanzania. Project Wezesha was founded to support students living in remote villages in the Kigoma region by increasing their access to education. Project Wezesha got its start with an ambitious project — to build a secondary school! In 2009, then village chief, Bitata, asked Project Wezesha founders Rai Farrelly and Lucas Lameck to help. In 2010, after some fundraising back in the US, Rai returned to Tanzania and Amahoro Secondary School was born. It took a few years, but over time 16 rooms were built on a lovely plot of land in Mgaraganza Village. The school was officially opened in 2015. Check out highlights from the opening ceremony here — complete with dance, song, and speeches.
Integral to the building of Amahoro Secondary School is the benevolent couple - Shelmina and Minaz from Seattle, Washington. Shelmina and Minaz are originally from Tanzania and Uganda respectively. Serendipitously, Shelmina and Rai became connected at a time when Shelmina was investigating options for building schools in Tanzania and Uganda in honor of their fathers and grandfathers. With their wedding approaching, Shelmina and Minaz saw an opportunity in a partnership with Project Wezesha. They invited their guests to donate to Project Wezesha instead of giving them gifts. Their generous guests, as well as Shelmina and Minaz, contributed over $40,000 USD to the project! In the years that followed the opening of the school, they continued to support Amahoro Secondary School with additional latrines, as well as desks and chairs to meet the needs of a growing student body.
In February 2020, Shelmina and Minaz traveled to Kigoma to see Amahoro Secondary School for the first time. Of course, Shelmina and Minaz had become household names in the years since this project launched. So when the village leaders, villagers, and school teachers heard about their visit - they pulled out all the stops to welcome and celebrate them in true Tanzania (Kigoma) style with student speeches, singing, and of course - dancing! Shelmina and Minaz reported that it was one of the most memorable, special days of their entire lives. We know the same is true for many of the students and community members whose lives they’ve touched over the years.
Minaz and Shelmina with teachers, village leaders, and Lucas at Amahoro Secondary School
Amahoro Secondary School has been the educational home to many of our Girls Ed students. We are also thrilled about upcoming plans to re-launch our Academic Study Camps at Amahoro Secondary School, bringing this important educational boost for students back to the village where many of our students live.
This year, in the wake of her visit to Amahoro Secondary School, Shelmina has launched another fundraiser for Amahoro Secondary School to celebrate her 60th birthday. The fundraiser goal is set for $10,000 and Shelmina, Minaz and their children are contributing a matching $10,000. This extraordinarily generous effort will allow Project Wezesha to complete construction on several classrooms, to add more desks and chairs, to supply a water tank to the school, to build a girls changing room, and hopefully to install solar panels so the school can get a copy machine and computers for teachers.
We can’t really put into words the gratitude we feel for Shelmina and Minaz coming into our lives. We can only promise that students who have the opportunity to learn and excel in the school they have built will be great sources of inspiration and innovation in their communities. The ripple effect of building a school in Mgaraganza Village will span from Lake Tanganyika in the West to the Indian Ocean in the East — and beyond!