LUCAS MHINA PRIMARY SCHOOL

LUCAS MHINA SCHOOL  SEPTEMBER 23,2023

  2nd day after delivering 100 desks we had 43 kids aged 3-6 from close villages attend the school-we had to find a local masai who finished F4 to start teaching them numbers/Alphabets etc while government is preparing for sending new teachers ready for jan 2024

 

The Losirwa school, one of our first schools to support, is now overcrowded with more than 1000 students.  The Tanzanian government bought 17 acres and asked Friends of Meali to build a school.  We will do so with the help of our wonderful supporters and name the school the Lucas  Mhina Primary School after Lucas our Tanzanian Director, a man with vision and compassion, who has worked tirelessly and selflessly to make all that Friends of Meali accomplish happen.

 

The Lucas  Mhina Primary School, K-7, will be built near the Losirwa school.  It is the first school that we have built from the ground up. We have built all the components of a school at our other three schools and are using this experience to design a school from scratch.  The estimated cost is $500,000, of which we have raised over 75% before starting. 

 

Groundbreaking was Nov. 29. Construction will begin in Jan 2023  Students will occupy the school in the summer of 2023. Watch this page for construction progress.

 

WATER WELL

We have completed the water well that will be used by the local community as well as the school.  This is thanks to a contingent of people from California that worked hard to raise the money.  The workers reached water at 300 feet and installed a water pump and a solar panel.  Now that there is water the villagers are also able to supply water for their animals. At night they refill the trough so that wild animals can find water and are not destroying everything in site. This frees up the villagers, including children, so that they can spend less time tending animals and more time with schoolwork. 

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GROUND BREAKING 

Building has started in earnest.  The villagers have collected all the rocks for the foundations and they are being built, the workers have moved to the site, supplies have been moved to the site, a cook has set up a kitchen, a watchman has been employed to guard the site and supplies, and we are off to an amazing start.  Watch the video from Lucas.

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ALMOST COMPLETED SCHOOL  July 1,2023

The video below shows the school progress to date.  Construction is a little behind due to an entire month of rain and the inability of the solar power  to keep up with the electric power needed to operate the well during the month of rain. That problem will be corrected with back up battery power.  The slow opening of the school  will begin this September with Kindergarten and K1.  In January, the start of the new school year,  the school will expand to K1- 4.  It will expand to K-7 when there are enough teachers.  These teachers need to be able to speak the local Masai language, teach Kiswahili, and some then teach  English.  The hard part is finding teachers who speak the local language.  When Lucas visits, mothers rush out asking him to please open the school. 

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