The One With The Letter From The Headmaster (1/31/2013)

In the public school system in Tanzania school employees do not get to choose where they work. They are assigned by the government and, although they sometimes can be transferred they have little say in where they get placed.  To work in the education system here a person must have gone to university and earned at least a diploma.  To afford this level of education most educators have come from Tanzanian families that were better off monetarily than the average family. This means that they are generally used to a nicer style of living which may include electricity, running water, or possibly an indoor bathroom.  Unfortunately many of the schools where school employees get assigned are in very rural areas with substandard housing and facilities.  Kafule is one of these villages and there have been a number of teachers who have gotten assigned here, come and look at the school and the teacher housing, walk away and then tried to enter into the private school system.  When a teacher walks away like this the school does not get an immediate replacement, they are put back on the governments list and must wait for another shot at a new staff member.  This is why Kafule has 10 teachers (including Dahlia and myself) for the 500 students here. 

Isaac Mwalongo is the headmaster at Kafule Secondary School.  He grew up in Dodoma, located in central Tanzania, and then moved to Mbeya, the closest city to Kafule, where his family still lives.  Three years ago he was transferred by the government to Kafule.  Against the advice of his friends (because of how remote the village is) he took the position.  He once told me, “this is my country, this is the job that I was trained for, I am going to do this job the best that I can, no matter what the housing is like.”  He is a man dedicated to his faith, family, country and career and has been a joy to work for over these last four months. 

His vision for Kafule is to make improvements to the school that are sustainable.  Any time there is a government conference or function in our district he immediately offers Kafule up to host the event as a way to get government officials into the school.  He uses these opportunities as a way of showing them around to impress on them how well we are using the resources that we have been given and as a time to request more.  Mr. Mwalongo has done a lot for the school already in the last three years that he has been here and he has big plans to continue the work. 

When he first got to Kafule, Mr. Mwalongo saw an opportunity to plant and harvest trees to sell for use as lumber.  He told the staff that he wanted to begin work planting trees and faced some opposition from the teachers.  They said that it was going to be too much work to plant and harvest them. They believed that the school was surrounded by forest and they could just cut down the trees that are already grown.  Mr. Mwalongo insisted on planting at least two trees, and often more, for every one tree that gets cut down.  The first year the school had 300 trees cut, the second year 8,000, and this year already we have cut 5,000 trees.   Mr. Mwalongo intends to use the money made from these sales for improvements to the teachers housing which he sees as the schools biggest need.  However, he also dreams of having a printer/copier and 2-3 computers at the school.  Currently the school has a copier that is from the 1950’s.  It is a hand crank machine that goes through ink so fast that it is too expensive to use for anything other than finals.  Monthly exams are written on the chalkboards for the students to copy down and there are no worksheets or copied notes.  A new copier would make it much less expensive for the school to give exams.  With the computers, Mr. Mwalongo hopes to begin a small computer class or club for students interested in a career in business.  The problem is that even if we get the computers and copiers the school does not have electricity to run them. Solar power is the only reasonable resource to have in order to run all of this equipment.  An added bonus would be that when the power is not being used for copier and computers the school could allow villagers to use it, and the school will be able to power light bulbs in the classrooms for the student who study there at night. 

Mr. Mwalongo recently asked me if I knew anyone who might be interested in donating money or solar panel equipment and all of the other equipment necessary.  He wrote this letter for me to pass along to anyone who might be interested.  At the end is a chart with the breakdown of all of the parts that would be needed and their cost.  He gave the cost in shillings and I made conversions based on the average exchange rate over the last 28 days (as of 12/24/12) so the exact cost might vary.  In addition, Nexamp, a company that my Dad has worked with in the past, has offered to donate two solar panels that will produce all of the power that Mr. Mwalongo is asking for.  (I typed up Mr. Mwalongo’s letter as is, so solar panels are still included in the list of equipment needed, however no more panels need to be purchased).  If you are interested in donating please visit https://www.firstgiving.com/WorldTeach/Tanzania2013 where you can make a tax deductible donation through First Giving.  If more money is raised than needed for the solar equipment the money will go toward renovations to the teachers housing (specifically bathrooms). 

Thank you so much for considering this cause. 

The United Republic of Tanzania

Ministry of Education and Vocational Training

Kafule Secondary School

P.O. Box 09 Ileje- Mbeya

The need of a school to have solar power to produce electricity for school uses.

Kafule Secondary School is a community based school.  It was formally built by the community and run by the Moravian Church. From May 1999 the school was handed to the government and then to Kafule Ward and so treated as a community school.  The responsibility of all constructions is done by people who live in this ward.  Because of inability of the ward to do many activities it has been difficult to build new buildings at the same time rehabilitating old buildings.  So the school is using her money found from school projects to do the rehabilitation. 

On the other hand the school finds that there is a great need of having modern machines that will simplify different works especially secretarial activities.  So there is a need of having machines such as printer, photocopier, and computers.  In order to run these machines the school needs electricity.  But the school is about 63 km from the district headquarter where hydro-electricity is found.  We find that it is difficult to suffice our need through this way.

The possible way of getting electricity is the use of solar panels (solar power) which after research is found to cost about seven million shillings (7,000,000/-).  We have planned that the source will produce not less than 840 watts which is expected to fulfill our needs as a school and so run the above mentioned machines. 

The needed items for the project to be completed are listed below with their respective costs.

Quantity	Item	Price	Total	Total Cost in US Dollars
6	N 120 litre betry (dry)	450,000/-	2,700,000/-	$  1,689.33
6	Solar panel	650,000/-	3,900,000/-	$  2,440.14
2	Charge control 45 Aps	350,000/-	700,000/-	$     437.97
1 ½ roll	Electric wire (2.5 mm)	206,000/-	206,000/-	$     128.89
20 m	Solar wire (6 mm)	5,000/-	100,000/-	$        62.57
1?	Surface box	5,000/-	5,000/-	$          3.13
2	One gang switch (tronic)	2,000/-	4,000/-	$          2.50
4	Two gang switch (tronic)	3,000/-	12,000/-	$          7.51
4	Power socket (tronic)	500/-	2,000/-	$          1.25
2	Extension cable	15,000/-	30,000/-	$        18.77
4	Solution tap	1000/-	4,000/-	$          2.50
2	Inverter 2000 watts	350,000/-	700,000/-	$     437.97
10	Round box	500/-	5,000/-	$          3.13
4 kg	Nails	3000/-	12,000/-	$          7.51
2	Kit chair	100,000/-	200,000/-	$     125.14
10	Lamps (Sundaya)	18,000/-	180,000/-	$     112.62
2	Earth rods	45,000/-	90,000/-	$        56.31
	Labor charge for installation (20%)	1,770,000/-	1,770,000/-	$ 1,107.45
Total Cost			10,620,000/-	$  6,644.68

We as a school greatly need your support either wholly or in part of the cost to enable our school makeover.

Thank you in advance.

Isaac A.L. Mwalongo

The Headmaster