20 and Counting - College Updates 11/20/2021 Our long term commitment to the children from the defunct Kilimanjaro Orphanage Centre is presently succeeding well beyond all of our expectations. As of Shannon's October trip to work on school placements we have 20 students that we support who are in diploma or collegiate programs beyond high school. We have another five taking their Form 4 exams soon that we believe will also make it to the next level. The education system in Tanzania involves 8 years of basic education, then four years of Form Schools which are the equivalent of our high schools. There is a culling process using national exam scores that results in about 97% of the students not making it beyond Form 4. Forms 5 and 6 can be considered similar to our Junior Colleges. College assignments and courses of study are done by the government based on your academic performance. You may apply to various schools, but will only be assigned to one. Presently we support 62 students in various schools, but the majority of them are still in grade schools and high schools. We anticipate that many of the younger student will also qualify to go on to higher education. Medical fields have attracted many of our students as they have gotten to see the work that Shannon and I do. Novati is in his second year of Clinical Officer training. This program licenses them to a level roughly equivalent to a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant in America. It is also a potential stepping stone to Medical School. Starting their Clinical Officer programs recently were Abu and Edward. Husna is in her second year of Nursing School. Zainab Kubwa is in her second year for a obtain a degree in Laboratory Sciences. Our three Form 5/6 students are Glorianna, Winnie and Theresia. We support Theresia when she is between semesters as she has a sponsor in Germany who covers her school costs. Jeni Anselm bypassed Form 5 and 6 and went directly to University where she is in an Engineering program. Her Division One scores (Top 1% in the country!) on her Form 4 national exams enabled her to make this jump. Husein is graduating with his Bachelor Degree in Human Resources next month. Hamisi is a year or so behind him studying the same curriculum. Shedrack is in his second year studying Computer Sciences. Two of our students are studying Accounting. Upendo is in her second year of a Bachelor Degree program and Mwantum is in the second year of a Diploma program. Reggie is in training to become a Montessori Instructor. We anticipate that Jeni Joseph will also take this training. We sponsored a student years ago who used this path to get an advanced Teaching Credential which was the equivalent of a Master's degree. Emma is just starting a program of instruction in Social Welfare. Glory is in her first year of University with a major of Philosophy and Ethics.
We are well represented in the legal field as well. Ezerida is finishing her post graduate training in Dar es Salaam and we anticipate that she will then become a licensed advocate. One year behind her is Mwanaidi who is now going through the application process that Ezerida did last year to try to obtain one of the coveted post graduate positions. To become a fully licensed lawyer, you must take that final year of training.
Shannon and I are quite happy to be victims of our own success. We are both working since paying for 20 kids in colleges with more to come is the challenge after they get in. There is virtually no government support for students other than a shaky loan program that I never saw function very well. The ''loan money'' often is not appropriated by their legislature and then students find themselves out of school. But we have received much help from friends and sponsors and that has done much to make the financial burdens easier. Greg Higgins