PERSPECTIVES - Soit Sambu Teacher’s Housing
In rural Tanzania, education is a gateway to worlds of opportunity for students and incredibly important to our communities. Our Tanzanian friends consistently request greater resources for their children so they can have happy, prosperous futures. That’s one reason why education is one of our four main focus areas, and it’s why we have devoted so much time and energy to building classrooms, dormitories, and teachers’ housing.
Click above to view this education video.
FOTZC has completed many successful school-related projects, and those successes gradually attract more students who need more teachers. Soit Sambu is a prime example.
Success at Soit Sambu
FOTZC has been honored to complete three big projects at Soit Sambu. In 2011, we built two-in-one teachers’ housing for Soit Sambu Primary School. Each half of the building can house one family or up to three teachers. In 2016, cognizant of its growing student population, FOTZC built a boys’ dormitory for Soit Sambu Secondary School. In 2022, we built a girls’ dormitory for the secondary school, and we are currently in the process of building another boys’ dorm. Today, Soit Sambu Secondary serves 1,029 bright young minds, attracting students from miles around in remote Loliondo.
A Growing Need for Teachers’ and Housing
It takes a tremendous amount of resources to serve a thousand students anywhere in the world, and Soit Sambu is no exception. The school employs 25 teachers and 7 staff members. Due to its remote location, those teachers and staff also live on the school grounds, sharing rooms in housing built for 9, not 32. While housing was meant to accommodate single bedrooms, teachers and staff now must double and triple up. Communal living spaces have been converted into makeshift bedrooms. Without privacy and quiet spaces to prepare their lessons, many teachers sadly stay in the Soit Sambu school offices overnight simply to complete their work.
Sometimes, the best way to support students is to make sure teachers have homes that support their health and well-being. Those environments create terrific role models and mentors. That’s why we’re raising funds to build new teachers’ housing at Soit Sambu—housing will provide a greater quality of life to this group of truly dedicated and selfless individuals. Working as a teacher in a remote area often means leaving friends and family to serve a community largely disconnected from the rest of the world. Additional housing, however, will make it possible for some teachers and staff to bring their families with them. If anyone deserves to be with their loved ones in a comfortable home, it is these generous and caring people.
Will You Help Us Build Homes for the Teachers of Soit Sambu?
Our special project this spring is to raise money for new two-in-one teachers’ housing at Soit Sambu, which can accommodate two families or up to six teachers comfortably. Please consider supporting efforts by giving a gift that will go to building new homes for these inspiring educators.
And please note that donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar for the first $25,000 raised for this project, thanks to the Drollinger Family Charitable Foundation. If you would like your gift to make double the impact, consider donating now to this worthy project.
