Losingira Primary School

Losingira Primary School is only a ten minute walk from Meserani Snakepark, where our project is based in Tanzania. In 2015 during a visit by students from Acklam Grange School we discovered that there were only four classrooms in the school, which had been funded by a Padre from Germany, who had since moved away. This meant that there were no classrooms for pupils in the Reception Class and Standards Five, Six and Seven.

Following a meeting of the project trustees on 23 February 2016 it was decided to initially fund the building of two classrooms and an office, and then look at the possibility of building the final classroom some time in the future. The project selection committee at Meserani met on 2 March, and gave their wholehearted approval of the building project. The first $8,000 was sent to Meserani on 3 March, so that the work could begin, and the building project started on 21 March 2016.

Chandlers Ridge Primary School in Middlesbrough decided to establish a link with Losingira Primary School, and made a commitment to raise funds to provide educational resources for the new classrooms once they have been completed.

On 31 March 2016 we received images of the initial building work:

Further images were received on 25 April:

Work on the roof began in May:

In August 2016 a group of adults on a Kupenda Africa Trip were spending two weeks at Meserani Snakepark engaging with The Meserani Project, and they were invited to the official opening ceremony of the two classrooms and office. The building was dedicated to the memory of Sariade Kileo who passed away in 2014. Sari had been a member of our selection committee at Meserani, and her young brother Ibrahim was the actual builder that we used for the building of the classrooms at Losingira.

At the opening ceremony we were able to announce to the school and guests that we had secured funding to begin building the final two classrooms that were needed. This funding was in the form of $4,000 (8,2220,000 Tanzanian Shillings), and had been raised by the pupils and staff at Chandlers Ridge Primary School, Middlesbrough.

Building work began in October 2016.

In January 2017 the initial work was completed, and we were looking for potential funding sources to complete the work.

In November 2017 the trustees of The Meserani Project agreed in principal to fund the completion of the building of the final two classrooms, and this decision was ratified by the selection committee at Meserani in January 2018. Building work began in February, and our first images were received in early March.

By the end of March, further progress had been made:

In April 2018 Chandler’s Ridge Primary School, Middlesbrough, donated a further £1,586.50 towards the building of the final two classrooms.

Despite the heavy rains in April/May 2018, further progress has been made with the building work:

In August 2018 a group of adults on a Kupenda Africa Trip were spending two weeks at Meserani Snakepark engaging with The Meserani Project, and they were invited to the official opening ceremony of the final two classrooms.

During the same visit display boards were installed in the classrooms by Graeme Fallowfield of Hartlepool College of Education.

A further development was made when the toilet pit that had become a danger to the pupils was eventually covered over, thanks to a donation by Austin and Sarah Vites, from the U.S.A.

The final involvement of the Kupenda Africa group was a selection of text books being donated to the school by Bev & Graeme Fallowfield from Hartlepool College of Education.

 In December 2019 we learnt that the Standard Seven National Examination results for Losingira School were the second best in the whole region! This is a remarkable achievement for the school – and of course for The Meserani Project.

In January 2020 a group from Virgin Media visited the school, and donated 2.7 million Tanzanian Shillings for the provision of more desks and chairs.