Outside Iringa Town
on the Mbeyu Road

In the lush forests of western Tanzania is the remote village of Iringa. And just outside Iringa Town on the Mbeyu Road is an impossible dream – the Ruaha Secondary School.

Tanzania is the fourth poorest country in the world. The minimum wage is $38 per month. The average teacher's salary is $81 per month. The education system is broken. Many schools lack textbooks, floors, windows and basic equipment. Often teachers don't show up and students are left to fend for themselves. And when teachers do show up, they use harsh physical punishment like caning to enforce discipline.

The Ruaha Secondary School was started in 1986 to address these dire conditions. It began as a humble day school, but it was soon apparent that girls couldn't come because it was unsafe and difficult for them to travel back and forth daily from their villages to the school grounds. So, dorms and meals were added for girls so they could stay at the school.

Based on high academic standards and innovative moral education centered on the arts and service to the community, Ruaha grew. It embodies the philosophy that students can be active agents in their own education and teachers should be role models who use openness in discussion and decision-making, not corporal punishment. This village school now serves 650 students and ranks 3rd in its region and 35th out of 611 schools in the nation.

Because of the support given to girls, most of the students are female. But many boys wanted to attend Ruaha too. They were attracted by the fair treatment and the excellent teaching. They were welcomed to come to classes, but the school had no facilities for them to stay at night and no money to build them.

The boys were undaunted. They set themselves up in small shanties outside the school grounds. They had no water, no electricity, no beds, no furniture and no food, except the one meal a day the school provided.

All they had was a basic roof over their heads to fend off the African rain. But they were happy. They were going to school.

What would make a child, just 14 or 15 years old, live all on his own, far from his home village and his family in such deprived conditions?

In countries like ours, where education is abundant and mostly free, it's hard to imagine a young boy staying away from home for months on end, sleeping alone in a drafty hut, being hungry most of the time, with no place to wash, no family to care for him. But that's what the boys did . . . just to go to school.

Happily, Mona Foundation was able to secure funds from generous donors to build dormitories for these boys. And Ruaha School has just completed its first twenty-year development plan to be rolled out over four phases that will extend quality education to many more boys and girls . . . right there, just outside Iringa Town on the Mbeyu Road.

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