History Of The Project

 

In July 2004 a group of pupils from Acklam Grange School, Middlesbrough, stumbled across Lesiraa School, on a two-week Overland Expedition to Kenya and Tanzania. What they witnessed shocked them, and proved to be quite distressing.

They simply could not believe that young people could be educated in such conditions, and in a tearful and emotional meeting they made a promise that they would ‘make a difference’.

    The immediate response was to leave a sum of money to start a building project for the school, and upon their return to Middlesbrough they launched what was to become known as the Lesiraa Project.

Over a period of two years the pupils and staff at Acklam Grange School engaged themselves in a fundraising campaign, with the eventual outcome being the building, furnishing and equipping of four brand new classrooms at Lesiraa School.

In July 2007 another group of pupils from Acklam Grange School were able to visit Lesiraa School to see at first hand the result of all the hard work.

    During this visit in 2007, we discovered another school that was in desperate need of support – Meserani Juu Primary School. Although their classrooms had solid walls, as opposed to the decaying woodwork of the original Lesiraa School classrooms, the situation of overcrowding shocked us all, and the pupils from Acklam Grange School found the whole scene quite distressing.

You can see from the expressions on our faces how shocked we were at the overcrowded classrooms and desperate lack of educational equipment and resources.

We had another emotional meeting at Meserani School, and decided that we would return to Acklam Grange School and set about raising enough money to build and equip four new classrooms for the school – the Lesiraa Project now became known as the Meserani Project, and this was launched at Acklam Grange School in September 2007.

    In February 2008 we returned and handed over $10,000 to start the building of four brand new classrooms… and the plans were drawn up.

By February 2009 the four classrooms were completed… and in July 2009 we put the final touches to the four brand new classrooms.

Following the completion of our building projects at Meserani Juu Primary School and Lesiraa Primary School, we looked into what happened to the pupils once they completed their primary education. We were shocked to learn that in Tanzania only one out of every nineteen pupils completes their secondary education – this is because they have to pay to attend government secondary schools, (the nearest school to Meserani was Einoti Secondary School, and their fees were just under £100 a year). Hardly any pupils from the Meserani District attended Einoti Secondary School, not just because of the school fees, but also because the transport costs were in excess of £100 a year. The other significant factor was the extreme poverty in the Meserani District in comparison with other areas of Tanzania.

    Clearly, we needed to ensure that pupils who were successful in their final examinations at primary school should have the opportunity to continue their education at a secondary school. A selection committee of local people was set up, (teachers, village elders and local council leaders), and in 2009 the Meserani Project sponsored the first nine pupils to attend Einoti Secondary School for their full four years of secondary education.

In 2010 a further ten pupils from the Meserani District, and six pupils from the Kisongo District were sponsored to start their full four years at Einoti Secondary School.

Twenty-five pupils were now being sponsored to attend Einoti Secondary School, and you can see full details on each pupil, and their individual sponsors, by clicking the appropriate link on the website home page.

In 2010 the decision was made to apply for charity status, and this was achieved in June of that year. The main consideration in the constitution of the charity was that there would be no expenses taken out of any money raised by the charity, or any donations made to the charity. All work would be done voluntarily, and no person would be allowed to claim any expenses whatsoever. This means that 100% of all money raised and donated goes directly into the work undertaken in Kenya and Tanzania.

In August 2010 we established a link with two government boarding schools, and discovered that the cost of sending a pupil to one of these schools was less than sending a pupil from the Meserani region to Einoti Secondary School as a day pupil.

Sixteen girls were now being sponsored to attend Kipok Secondary Boarding School and thirteen boys were being sponsored to attend Moita Secondary Boarding School – they all started in January 2011. You can see full details on each pupil, and their individual sponsors, by clicking the appropriate link on the website home page.

In January 2012 a further sixteen boys started at Moita Secondary Boarding School and nineteen girls started at Kipok Secondary Boarding School.

    A further extension to the project is our involvement with St. Secilia School, which is in Kibera, Nairobi, the second largest slum area in the world.

In July 2011 a group of 24 students from Acklam Grange School and two trustees of The Meserani Project visited Meserani Chini Primary School, and felt that The Meserani Project should support this school. The school is in a desolate and remote area, it has seven classes but only five classroms, and two of these were in a quite unacceptable condition.

We liaised with our advisors from the Meserani region, and the trustees decided that we should pay for the building and equipping of two classrooms. The building work started in September 2011, and was completed in February 2012, and teachers’ text books were provided for all subjects and all age ranges.

    Early in 2012 we provided five 5,000 litre water tanks for Kipok Girls Secondary Boarding School and two 5,000 litre water tanks for Moita Boys Secondary Boarding School.

695 text books were provided for the pupils at Meserani Chini School in August 2012 meaning that there are text books for all seven year groups, and for every subject – something unheard of for government schools in this part of Tanzania!

    Solar Power was installed at Kipok Girls Secondary Boarding School by August 2012, providing lighting to all dormitories, all classrooms and all teachers’ houses for the first time. Power sockets were also supplied to the school office and to the teachers’ houses.

    In January 2013 a further thirty-four pupils were sponsored to start their secondary education at Kipok School, Moita School and Einoti School. One pupil (Paulo Saingorie) was actually allocated a place at Ilboru Boys Secondary Boarding School by the government, due to his exceptional results in the National Examinations at Primary School.

Throughout 2013 we undertook a complete refurbishment of the four teachers’ houses at Meserani Chini Primary School, so as to attract quality teachers to the school. Each house was given a new roof, windows, doors, plastering, ceilings, bed, mattress, guttering and water tank.

 

 

By the end of the  year two new teachers had already moved in.

  

In July 2013 we had our first ever pupils starting A’ Level courses. Charles Robert is studying at Engutoto School, Monduli, and Lembis Loisulie is studying at Sanya Juu School, Moshi.

At the start of 2014 a further 25 pupils started their secondary education, spread across three schools: Engutoto, Moita and Kipok.

Towards the end of 2013 we established a link with Arusha Vocational Training Centre, and in January 2014 our first three students started a residential course there leading to a vocational qualification in carpentry.

 

We are hoping that this new venture is successful, as we will have many more students in the future who will be hoping to access similar courses.

None of the secondary schools that we support have whiteboards – in fact every government school that we have visited in the Arusha region only have blackboards – so in January 2014 we provided a full-size whiteboard and several packs of whiteboard marker pens to Einoti Secondary School, Moita Boys Secondary Boarding School and Kipok Girls Secondary Boarding School. These whiteboards are being trialled by the schools, and if successful in improving the standard of teaching at the schools, we will look into providing more whiteboards for some of the schools that we support.

The 2013 national examination results for secondary schools in Tanzania were published in February 2014, and we were delighted to learn that we had a 53% success rate with pupils who achieved the necessary pass mark to go on to further education. Nine students are now studying A’ Levels at High Schools throughout Tanzania, and six students will be starting a three-year course at Arusha Vocational Training Centre.

 In July 2014 three water tanks were provided for Moita School by four former Acklam Grange pupils, Chloe Winter, James Small, Joe Millar and Tom Dobson, as part of their East Africa Expedition 2014 Project. They also provided three water tanks and a large consignment of text books for Kipok School.

In August 2014 two more water tanks and 56 bunk beds were provided for Moita School. The bunk beds were made by a local engineer from Meserani. At the same time, two more water tanks were provided for Kipok School, as well as solar power to a new classroom block, solar power to the school office, a photocopier and a printer.

The national examination results for Lesiraa School in 2013 and 2014 were outstanding, and were amongst the best in the whole area. In order to further motivate the teachers to continue their excellent efforts, it was decided to begin a refurbishment programme of the staff room at the school. As it stood in July 2014 they had no shelving, no cupboards, no storage, no water tanks, no adequate teacher’s desks – in fact they had nothing at all! In August 2014 we put up shelving in the staff room as the first part of the refurbishment programme, and in January 2015 we provided two much-needed 5,000 gallon water tanks for the school.

In August 2014 we organised our first ever trip to Meserani for sponsors and supporters of the charity. Two weeks were spent in Kenya and Tanzania, including a number of safari expeditions, but the majority of time was spent at Meserani working with the pupils and schools.

By the end of 2014 we had completed the refurbishment of the teachers’ houses at Meserani Chini Primary School, and as a result the school was able to appoint six new teachers. The national examination results for the school exceeded all expectations, and we were able to sponsor three girls and two boys to begin their secondary education in January 2015.

In January 2015 we found sponsors for 25 more pupils to begin their secondary education at Moita and Kipok Boarding Schools, as well as sponsors for ten more students to begin their A’ Level studies, and six more students to begin their courses at Arusha Vocational Training Centre.

 

In June 2015 a group from Virgin Media spent four days at Meserani working on the project. They installed solar power to a teacher’s house at Kipok School, undertook a water harvesting survey at Meserani Chini Primary School, donated tools and resources to Arusha Vocational Training Centre and undertook an infrastructure survey, and gave individual laptop lessons to our A’ Level students.

 

In August 2015 eleven more students began their first year of A’ Level studies (eight males and three females), whilst seven students began their second year of A’ Level studies (six males and one female).

In August 2015 we funded the installation of a roof for the new dormitory at Kipok Girls’ Secondary Boarding School.

In September 2015 three students began courses at university (our first ever university students – a landmark for the charity!)

In November 2015 we had our best ever set of National Examination results to date: 14 out of our 16 pupils in Form Two at Moita Secondary school achieved a Distinction – the highest level of pass!

In January 2016 we found sponsors for 30 more pupils to begin their secondary education at Moita and Kipok Boarding Schools.

In January 2016 we funded the installation of doors, windows and plastering for the new dormitory at Kipok Boarding School, and fifty desks and chairs for Moita Boarding School.

In March 2016 we made a commitment to fund the building of two classrooms and an office at Losingira Primary School, and building work began on 21 March.

The two classrooms at Losingira Primary School  were officially opened in August 2016.

In August 2016 we installed a water harvesting system at Meserani Chini Primary School.

Work on the final two classrooms at Losingira Primary School began in October 2016, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Chandlers Ridge Primary School, Middlesbrough.

In September 2016 nine students were selected to begin higher education courses at university or college.

In January 2017 a group of employees from Virgin Media installed solar power to the staff accommodation block at the Meserani Juu Medical Clinic.

In January 2017 we found sponsors for 24 more pupils to begin their secondary education at Moita, Kipok and Irkisongo Boarding Schools.

In July 2017 eleven more students began their first year of A’ Level studies (seven males and four females).

In October 2017 six more students began their first year of university degree courses (four males and two females).

In January 2018 five students began their secondary education at Moita Boys’ School, Engutoto Boys’ School and Kipok Girls’ School.

In July 2018 sixteen students began their first year of A’ Level studies – a record year for the project!

In August 2018 we completed the building of the final two classrooms at Losingira Primary School.

In October 2018 six more students began their first year of university degree courses (two males and four females).

In January 2019 four pupils began their secondary education at Kipok Girls’ Secondary Boarding School.

In January 2019 we met with Idd Hasan Kimanta (Monduli District Commissioner), and Loti Naparana Tarakina (Meserani Ward Councillor), to discuss the plans for the new Meserani Secondary School, and the following outcomes were agreed:

• By the end of April 2019 the District Commissioner will have completed a Land Survey and obtained a Land Occupancy Certificate.
• Building work is due to start in May, with teachers’ houses being built around the perimeter of the site, as an initial security feature.
• The Maasai groups within the Meserani Ward have already made substantial contributions towards the initial building costs.
• Once the building work begins, the Tanzania Government joins the project, with funding from the Education Department.
• At some stage The Meserani Project will join the building project as a stakeholder – this will be discussed initially with our committee in Tanzania, and will then need to be approved by the charity trustees.
• Currently there is approximately £30,000 in The Meserani Project charity bank account, that has been raised exclusively for the building project.

In July 2019 fourteen of our students began their first year of A’ Level studies:

Also in July 2019 four of our students began their first year College Diploma Courses:

In October 2019 six more of our students began their first year of university degree courses (four females and two males):

In January 2020 a group of employees from Virgin Media installed solar power to four teachers houses at the Meserani Juu Primary School, installed a water harvesting system at the new Meserani Chini Clinic, installed projectors and laptops at the LivLife Education Centre, and started work on a water harvesting system at the first two classrooms of the new Meserani Secondary School.

In January 2020 six pupils began their secondary education at Kipok Girls’ Secondary Boarding School, and Moita Boys’ Secondary Boarding School.

In January 2020, desks and chairs for 60 pupils at Losingira Primary School were provided by Virgin Media

In January 2020, desks and chairs for 30 pupils at Moita Boys’ Secondary Boarding School were provided by Virgin Media.

In January and February 2020, beds for 40 pupils at Kipok Girls’ Secondary Boarding School were provided by Acklam Grange School.

In February 2020 work began on the roof of the new Meserani Secondary School. Shortly after this, work was interrupted by the seasonal rains, and then the Coronavirus issue.

In July 2020 fifteen of our students began their first year of A’ Level studies:

In October 2020 we had a record number of students starting their first year of university degree courses – fifteen in all. We also took on two students who had completed their first year at university, but needed our sponsorship for them to continue:

In January 2021 three pupils began their secondary education at Kipok Girls’ Secondary Boarding School:

In May 2021 the building project for the new Meserani Secondary School took a major step forward – the Tanzanian government committed 600 million Tanzanian Shillings (£200,000) to the project. The Meserani Project has already committed to funding a double classroom and office, and a dormitory, with further resources promised once pupils have started attending.

In June 2021 five students started their first year of A’ Levels.

In July 2021 a meeting was held at the proposed site for the new Meserani Secondary School, involving the District Commissioner and council officials from all departments involved in the project. As soon as the promised government money is released, building can continue – it was hoped that the school would be built before the end of the year, so that the first intake of pupils could start in January 2022.

In October 2021 thirteen more of our students began their first year of university degree courses:

In November 2021 four more of our students began their first year of college diploma courses:

In October 2022 seven more of our students began their first year of university degree courses:

In January 2023 eight pupils began their secondary education:

In October 2023 four more of our students began their first year of university degree courses.

Finally – in January 2024 the new Meserani Secondary School opened to the first pupils!!!!

At the same time, work on the teachers’ houses was almost complete.

In January 2024 twelve pupils began their secondary education at the new Meserani Secondary School:

 

Another important milestone was when building work began on the dining hall and kitchen for the new Meserani Secondary School in February 2024.

In June 2024 two more students began their first year of A’ Levels:

Building work started on the toilet, changing rooms and firewood store building in October 2024.

In January 2025 eleven more pupils began their secondary education:

The current pupil/student statistics for The Meserani Project, as of January 2025 are:

• We have supported 304 young people throughout various stages of their education.
• 297 pupils have attended one of seven secondary schools that we have links with.
• 92 students have started their two years of A’ Level studies.
• 13 students have started their two year Vocational Training Courses.
• 28 students have started Certificate and Diploma Courses at College or University.
• 65 students have started their three year Degree courses at university.

The current resources statistics for The Meserani Project, as of January 2025 are:

• Built and furnished 14 classrooms in four primary schools.
• Provided 41 water tanks for 6 schools and a clinic.
• 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, a secondary 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 800 trees in two primary schools and two secondaryu schools.
• Provided a photocopier, printer, generator and TV/Video player for three schools.

The current resources statistics for our commitment to the new Meserani Secondary School, as of January 2025 are:

• Built two dormitories.
• Provided bunk beds for both dormitories.
• Provided water harvesting systems on both dormitories.
• Provided 640 fruit and shade trees.
• Provided seeds and watering cans for the vegetable garden.
• Provided a perimeter fence (finger euphorbia).
• Provided text books in all nine subjects for the first two year groups.
• Provided sanitary protection for all girls at the school.
• Provided sponsorship for a number of pupils at the school who were unable to afford basic requirements.
• Provided solar calculators for every pupil in the school, (for examinations).
• Provided sports kits and sports equipment for the school.
• Provided stoves and cooking equipment for the temporary kitchen.
• Provided security lighting for the school grounds.
• Provided a photocopier, printer and desktop computer.
• Provided and installed projectors, pull-down screens and black-out curtains for all eight classrooms.
• Provided a full size television screen for the ICT classroom.
• Installed wi-fi and all electrical requirements in the ICT classroom.
• Installed solar power to the two toilet blocks, the administration block and a science laboratory.
• Funding the building of the dining/assembly hall and kitchens.
• Funding tables and chairs for the dining/assembly hall.
• Funding the building of toilets, changing rooms and a firewood store for the dining/assembly hall.
• Funding a full size television screen, projector and pull-doen screen for the dining/assembly hall.
• Funding the building of three ‘strong-rooms’ in the school.
• Funding desks and chairs for the ICT classroom.