Tanzania is a country with two parallels. It experiences growth in its gas reserves and the tourism sector but many of its people are marred by poverty. Added to that is a chronic shortage of skilled scientists and other professionals to advance the country forward.

The School of St Jude believes many of its young students have the potential to become the next generation of highly qualified scientists who will make breakthroughs in their fields. Tanzanian teachers nurture our students in the classroom so they learn a whole gamut of science subjects.

Lower Primary

In earlier grades at St Jude’s, the students learn about nutritious food and its origins -- foods that will build, protect and energise them. They do activities like sorting through fruits, vegetables and grains to know their nutritional value. 

These students come from impoverished backgrounds and do not always know which are good foods or understand what it means to have a balanced diet. Their confidence grows as they identify the different types of foods.

“It’s not a concept they know. At their home at the moment, they just eat what they get and not what is supposed to be eaten. So their meals are sometimes not complete or balanced,” says Ms. Ruth Kyata, Lower Primary Science Teacher at St Jude’s. 

“However, they love learning about science at St Jude’s. They’re doing practical work. They’re going home to find out about different kinds of foods and then they come to school and ask you which kind of food does this belong to.”

At this early stage, they learn about healthy foods, body cleanliness and ways to look after themselves and keep their areas clean.

Our science teachers are supported by mentors and sometimes nuns in the classroom. The teacher mentors help staff to improve their English and show them new resources, while our nuns help students with activities. 

Upper Primary

As the students enter Upper Primary they’re building on their knowledge by doing more hands on science experiments, exploring body systems, different forms of energy and plant life. Thanks to St Jude’s generous supporters, the students have access to state-of-the-art science equipment and laboratories to conduct experiments.

“They learn about germination. They have to plant the seeds themselves and see how they’re developing, do measurements and watch it grow,” says Ms. Ernesta Njau, Upper Primary Science Teacher at St Jude’s. 

“I love doing experiments because it’s fun to do them and learn. One time we had to use different solutions to make an egg float in water,” says Asindh, 6D student.

It is at this stage that the students are considering the science subjects that they will take on during secondary school at St Jude’s.

Secondary

St Jude’s offers specialist academic streams including science and mathematics which are both highly popular with our secondary students at Smith Campus. With eight well-resourced science labs (four for A-level and four for O-LEVEL,) St Jude’s produces exceptionally high academic results in this area.

Fifty seven per cent of St Jude’s students are girls and a large number of them are studying science at St Jude’s Smith Campus. “The girls enjoy science and we’re encouraging them to pursue it as a career,” says Mr. Samwel Meing’atu, Secondary Science Teacher at St Jude’s. “We’re trying to eliminate that stigma which says science is only for men.”

The students can study a combination subjects like physics, chemistry and biology to help them reach their goals of going to university and becoming doctors, pharmacists, nurses or engineers. They do many more hands-on experiments and dissections of small mammals to better understand bodily systems.

“We need specially trained, good scientists because we have the emerging gas and nuclear sector and oil in Zanzibar,” says Mr. Meing’atu. “We’re preparing our students to have the confidence and skills to go to university and specialise in different careers. At the moment, they’re learning a little bit about medicine and studying the living organism. Through a variety of subjects, St Jude’s is stimulating the students’ minds.”

St Jude’s is preparing its students to be future leaders in their country, Africa and abroad. They have access to career counsellors and fairs to learn how they can break into their chosen industries.

We are proud that our students are constantly challenging themselves. Each year the school holds a science fair so the students can show their creative and technological innovations. Some secondary students have recently taken their modified generator project, which runs on three fuels, to Dar es Salaam, to enter in the Tanzanian Young Scientists Competition.

You can support St Jude’s by sponsoring one of our motivated students and teachers. By sponsoring a student you will help provide pens, pencils, books, school uniforms and nourishing hot lunches. You’d also be helping our teachers who are equipped with the necessary resources to use in the classroom.

You can find out more about our sponsorship packages here.

If you have traveled around Tanzania recently, you probably have bananas on your mind.

They are the most ubiquitous food you can find here. Traveling by car, it is impossible not to notice the banana plantations lining the roads, or the women selling them in plastic containers or on pieces of cloth placed on the ground.

Tanzanians already cook green bananas in many of their dishes, whether the fruit by itself or as an ingredient in meat, beans and lentil stews.

What no one here knew is that you can add a lot more than the fruit to your recipes.

The cooks at St Jude’s learned that first hand from Anne Perera, a food and nutrition consultant from New Zealand who volunteered to give a two-day banana tree cooking course at the school.

“The blossom, green peel and the pith of the stem have a high nutritional value,” says dr. Perera.

Nutritional value

As it turns out, green banana peels, blossoms and stems are important sources of fibers, potassium, and vitamins A, C and E.

The blossoms taste like artichokes. As with artichokes, both the fleshy part and the heart are edible. They contain saponins, phytochemicals thought to lower bad cholesterol and boost our immunity against infection. They are also an excellent source of flavonoids, which help prevent damage to DNA cells by neutralizing free radicals.

The green peel contains two important substances: tryptophan (increases serotonin levels, which balances mood and emotions) and lutein (a powerful antioxidant that protects the eye from a number of diseases and the harmful frequencies of UV radiation from the sun).

The banana stem is very beneficial for those on a weight-loss program. It is also a rich source of potassium and vitamin B6, which helps in the production of insulin and hemoglobin. Eating banana stems once a week keeps high blood pressure in control. They are diuretic and help detoxify the body.

Recipes

Banana blossom

Wash it thoroughly and remove the colored outer petals one by one until the tender part is exposed.

Slice it thinly and place it in bowls with salt water.

Add cooking oil to the pot, heat it, and add chopped onions and garlic.

Squeeze the blossom slices to remove the salt water, place them in the pot and cook until tender.

Add salt and pilau masala to taste (Tanzanian seasoning made of cumin, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon and cloves)

Add green sliced green peppers, tomatoes and amaranth leaves

Cook until well blended and in the end add coconut milk

Green Peel

Wash the green bananas and peel them.

Cut the peel into small pieces and place them in salt water.

In a bit of oil sautee chopped onions and garlic and add the cut peel.

Cook until tender

Add pilau masala and salt to taste, then quartered tomatoes and coconut milk.

Pith of the Stem

Remove the pith carefully,

Slice and remove the strands as much as possible, then place in salt water.

Cut the slices further into small dices.

Dice onions, garlic, carrots and green peppers, and place in a pan with heated oil.

Add diced sliced and diced pith, green pepper, tomatoes, and finally coconut milk.

A squeeze of lime for extra taste. 

These dishes can be served with ugali, the traditional Tanzanian polenta.

By Gemma Sisia

In the international dialogue about girls’ access to school as a way to end poverty, I see an elephant in the room, namely the lack of quality in public education.

You can send every girl to school and even keep them there for a number of years, but if these institutions are not equipped to teach them well, they are unlikely to achieve a generational leap out of poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa, with many developing countries now approaching universal primary education, the challenge is how to raise the educational standards.

Whenever people find out I have founded The School of St Jude, a nonprofit school offering a free high quality education to underprivileged students in Tanzania, a common question is, “What’s your policy on gender?”

My answer, to some people’s disappointment, is, “None.”

Don’t get me wrong. I think educating girls is extremely important in the fight against poverty. The World Bank has shown how the exclusion of girls from school leads to a less qualified workforce, inefficient allocation of labor and lost productivity. According to the UNFPA, educated girls tend to marry later, have fewer children, and seek health care for themselves and their children. Organizations such as Tostan show how education programs help girls and women know their rights and fight for them.

At The School of St Jude, girls already make up 57 percent of the student body, and we didn’t need to resort to quotas to achieve that. Besides a genuine financial need, our only selection criterion is academic talent. We have more girls because, in the earliest primary school grades, when we recruit most of our new students, girls develop faster than boys.

But recruitment doesn’t solve all problems. In many public schools in Tanzania, girls have to overcome a number of obstacles in order to maintain a regular attendance.

Unisex toilets, for instance, often without doors, are common. That causes teenagers a lot of embarrassment. Equally vexing is the lack of school buses. The BBC has documented the story of a Tanzanian girl who must walk 7km to school and another 7km to get back home on a daily basis.

The trek to and from school can be a dangerous enterprise. Stories of uniformed teenage girls being abducted and raped are not uncommon. Tanzanian law determines that a girl must be permanently blocked from attending school if she gets pregnant, as reported by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The School of St Jude has eliminated a number of these obstacles. We offer our students reliable school buses, hot meals, boarding rooms, plenty of separate bathroom facilities, and a health and welfare team to support those in need of special attention.

As our girl/boy ratio attests, if you level the playing field, girls will come and stay.

None of that, however, is enough to help girls produce the generational leap out of poverty we expect of them. If we want to give them a minimum chance of making more money and having a more comfortable life than their parents had, we need to provide them with a quality education.

I believe injecting quality in education systems, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the world’s largest challenges today in the fight against poverty.

Tanzania, like other nations, has made big strides towards achieving universal primary education, in order to meet the Millenium Development Goal’s 2015 deadline. But like the majority of countries struggling to improve their public education systems, quantity has not yet been accompanied by quality.

Here, government schools have as many as 200 children per classroom, and no learning resources other than a blackboard and a few shared textbooks. Besides, corporal punishment is used as a disciplining tool. According to UNICEF, “over 50 percent of girls and boys interviewed reported being punched, kicked or whipped by a teacher.”

In contrast, The School of St. Jude offers 1 teacher to a maximum of 30 students, mentors to help with the teachers’ professional development, computer and art rooms, sports fields, well-stacked libraries, science labs, and free textbooks and school materials. Corporal punishment is absolutely prohibited.

We have recently conducted an informal career preference survey with 100 of our 600 secondary students aged 14 to 19 years old.

Among those who took part in the survey, 42 percent of girls and 31 percent of boys want to either start a business or work in business administration; 22 percent of girls and 11 percent of boys want to become doctors; and 27 percent of boys and 11 percent of girls would like to become engineers.

That makes me go back to the beginning and contradict myself: I do have a gender policy. My policy is dual: level the playing field and provide both girls and boys with a quality education. 

For the competition, students were required to write an essay of up to 1,000 words about the topic:  “How can governments, businesses, non-profits, individuals and the youth collaborate to maximize Africa’s youth potential for the continent’s development and prosperity?” Here’s Wenseslaus’ essay:

In Africa there is a very large number of youth that has even exceeded other age groups. A youth age rank from 15- 27  years age. Around 43% of Africans are youth with the potential to bring development to this continent. Potential is the  ability of prosperity that is within an individual to do something much better for development purposes. 

“The world is on the cusp of entering a new reality in which human potential itself will become the major agent of economic growth,” said Jeffrey A. Joerres, CEO and President of Manpower Group, “Entering human age”, 2011.

Government is the group of people responsible for their citizens in the sense of leadership and law maintenance. The non-governmental organizations are organizations that do not depend on government support to run their activities. Businesses deal with provision of goods and services to consumers at the time of need while individuals are independent people. All these groups and individuals can come together to maximize the potential of African youth in different ways.

Firstly, by providing quality education and vocational skills. This can be done through construction of schools. Individuals may assist in learning institutions and even find scholarship opportunities for youth. Due to the fact that many Africans are not educated and those who are educated have low quality education, there is a need for these groups including individuals to assist in quality education for youth. 

For those who are not qualified academically, there should be vocational skills training that could help them get qualifications. There are about 133 million young people, 50% of whom are illiterate. If this number is reduced, we could count on a big development step for Africa. For example, an educated person can control a business well and later the profit is used for future development by paying tax to government. 

Fruits of education cannot be seen in a short time. It takes some years to reap what you sow.

There must be greater investment in science and technology. When governments, non-profit organisations, businesses and individuals join forces in science and technology we expect to enhance development in our continent. Also through empowering women to study science subjects. This would increase the number of students and graduates.

 There are so many youth in Africa who have the potential to do well in science and technology. Much concentration can be put in this sector since it is important that we consider the world’s fast moving technology. Many inventions, ideas, and discoveries have come from America, Asia and Australia but very few come from Africa. This shows we are behind in technology. If we invest we will one day end up developing in line with the Europeans and others.

Moreover, there is a need to create more employment opportunities. Employment makes a person self-reliant since they have a source of income. It should not just be spoken about but implemented and jobs should only go to qualified people so businesses can prosper. Uneducated persons can make a business decline as a factor of not having enough knowledge. Through employment, people will be able to pay taxes to their governments which will help in construction of social services like schools, roads and hospitals.

We have to start trusting youth and give them a chance to show their worth. If you hire a youth to control your business, I would assure you of a great success rather than anyone else, particularly if it is not their homeland. An African has a true love for their land compared to anyone else from abroad. I believe Africans can do better things, once given a chance.

Unemployment rate in Africa

Nevertheless, rendering of resources such as books and equipment to youth is another important factor. These can help youth to accomplish their dreams. These tools can include learning materials in the education sector, provision of quality machines will make the production more effective and lead to prosperity. 

Equipment, resources and tools may be offered by different methods like loans. Capital to start a business can be provided and interest be paid in return. This will make youth be more serious about their work knowing that they have something in return rather than just providing equipment for free without any consideration. For example youth who use computers to study have a higher ability for understanding compared to those who study without. Students who are exposed to resources perform much better than those without.

Furthermore, giving out reasonable loans can build the spirit of entrepreneurship in youth. Not only in business but also loans for study costs. There are some wealthy individuals like Dangote from Nigeria who are wealthy enough to provide loans to youth in order to maximize their potential. According to the loans rules they have strict conditions for one to obtain a loan. The government and banks should try to make the conditions lighter so we have a larger number of youth taking loans. 

For example, people need fixed assets to get a loan and many youth come from poor families. They may not have assets but they have the potential to do something to get out of that poverty. Hard conditions limit the number of youth putting effort into development and as a result hinders development overall.

In conclusion, the main thing needed is to main and bring development to African youth is teamwork and cooperation. These are the keys to a successful life. 

Though there are various challenges that are facing African youth such as poor infrastructure, lack of technology, poor administrative leadership and lack of skills, I still believe that one day Africa will be a place of another world. Changes are possible with commitment to oneself. If we have opportunities, let’s make good use of it. The little knowledge we have, let’s use it to bring greater change and reduce poverty.

Let’s make Africa a home for other continents.

There were around 200 entries and 46 came from St Jude’s. Ebenezer made it into the top 10 and travelled to Dar es Salaam for the award ceremony. He didn’t get one of the major prizes but was awarded a merit certificate and Tsh/-50,000. Ebenezer says he wants to use the money during the break to enlarge his chicken house so he can keep more chickens. Here's his essay: 

Standards are documented agreements containing specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions of characteristics to ensure that material, products, processes and serves are fit for their purpose. For example, the format of credit cards and smart cards that have become common place is derived from an ISO international standard. Adhering to the standards which defines such features as an optimum thickness (0.76mm) means that the card can be used world wide. Positive change is the act or result of replacing things, people and services from a worse situation to a better one.

Standardization began many years ago but started accelerating and becoming common in the 1960’s during the time of industrial revolution in many parts of the world. Standards were introduced to increase productivity and the quality of the goods. Currently each country in the world has its own national standards organization. In Tanzania we have Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) which was established in 1975 under a Ministry of Industry and Trade by an act of parliament. In 1976 the name was changed to Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) which effectively and officially began its operation in 1977. The world standard organization is called ISO. The International Organization for Standardization was established in 1947 with the mission of promoting the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services and to develop cooperation in spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economical activity.

Standards ensure positive change in many ways. These changes are beneficial to individuals and the world at large. These are some of the positive changes brought about by standards.

Standards reduce the cost in production by optimizing operations and therefore improve the bottom line. Since the tools used in production are standardized, they work efficiently hence reducing the cost compared to when non-standardized tools are used. For instance, electronic machines which have no standards consume a lot of electric energy. This becomes a burden in production since the cost is multiplied. Tools and machines with no standards may only last a short time. This can cause an organization to undergo unnecessary costs in purchasing new tools or repairing them often.

Standards enhance customer satisfaction and increase sales in business when products are at their best quality and approved by standards such as ISO or TBS, customers are found to be satisfied leading to an increase in sales. For example, American products are often most preferred due to the fact that they are approved by the American National Standards which is very strict so as to ensure quality of the product. Imagine the world without standards. People would be complaining due to the increase of fake products in the market. It would be very difficult to determine quality products. Businesses would face difficulties in proving the qualities of their goods to their trusted customers.

New markets are accessed due to the existence of standards. International standards help prevent trade barriers and open up the global market. People of the African continent are able to import computers from Europe and Asia due to the presence of international standards. Any product approved by international standards to meet the requirements can be sold in any nation without any barrier. Even though the product is quality but it is not approved by the international standards, such products may be regarded as fake products. Some fake medicines have been imported into our country but because we have the national bureau of standards (TBS), all these medicines have been noticed and are being banned from sale so as to ensure the good health of citizens. This leads to economic development of the nation. Tanzania experienced rapid growth in production since 2006 due to roles played by TBS in ensuring standards for efficiency of the society as shown in the graph below

Standards increase market share through increasing productivity and competitive advantage. International standards raise competition in productivity and quality of goods. Many countries in the world have tried their best to produce quality products so as to attract more customers so as to increase their export trade. Goods imported to our country come from foreign nations. This is because we are still undeveloped because we import more compared to what we export. Standards raise competition in the global market by deciding which product deserves to be exported or imported. When goods which are below the required standards are imported or exported, such goods may be banned from being sold by the concerned national standards organization. Every nation in the world has its criteria for assessing the quality of products depending on the development of that country. Some products for instance can meet the required standard in Tanzania but cannot do the same in the USA. This is due to the technological and economical gap that exists. The biggest role of international standards is in increasing market share is creating national prestige where by each nation wants to honored in quality of goods it produces hence leading to global competition in productivity.

Standards also reduce negative impacts on the environment. Taking importation of cars as an example, some of the cars produce a lot of smoke into the atmosphere. In order to reduce such problems, international standards had to be introduced. For that reason, car manufacturing industries have tried their level best to modify car engines which produce less pollution in the atmosphere to meet the required standard. Imagine the world with no standards.

Standards ensure peace and security in the world. Products such as explosives and flammable liquids like petroleum have to be approved by international standards so as to avoid various accidents in case they are misused. Tanzanian and other international standards ensure that chemicals are stored in favorable conditions. For example, acids which are imported to our nation are ensured to be at optimum concentration and not being too concentrated. This is to safeguard the users.

Standards ensure expertise in the entire world. Through standards people become experts in various fields such as engineering, information and communication technology, electronics and mechanics. Since quality and efficiency of goods are judged based on standards, industries and manufacturing companies ensure creativity which induces expertise. Example, in South Africa we have well experienced experts in car manufacturing and these are made to the international standard and able to suit the conditions for transport in Africa.

Employment opportunities are broadened by standards. The standards organizations across the world provide employment opportunities to many people. Managers, laboratory technicians, chemists, scientists are among the careers provided by standards organizations.

A standard stimulates Innovation in the society. Standards have a considerable role to play in stimulating a knowledge-intensive activity such as innovation, regardless of whether this is focused on products or processes. Researchers, developers, engineers and marketing experts use standardization documents as important sources of information about state-of-the-art technology and processes. Standards and standardization activities strongly support the processes by which new technology is adopted and used, and they have a potentially powerful influence on the dissemination of information about technology.  Standards increases creativity in the society where people have been coming up with new techniques in undertaking production.

In 2009, when St Jude’s opened up applications for some extra spaces available in our secondary school, a teenage girl from the Maasai tribe in the nearby village of Olkokola applied.

The Maasai are among the best known ethnic groups in Africa. They live near the great national parks of Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya, and wear colorful clothing and jewelry. 

You know you’re on Maasai land when you see their bomas, circles of oval mud-and-stick huts, from afar. The Maasai are seminomadic cattle herders and warriors for whom Swahili is a second language. 

Evaline displayed that good warrior spirit when she came to us, carrying a report card with excellent grades and the dream to pursue the kind of education that would allow her to have a professional career.

At St Jude we are determined to help Evaline fulfill her dream. 

We are very aware that in order to succeed in this task, our role needs to go beyond excellent teaching, great learning resouces, books and desks and nutritious meals. Those are all extremely important components of a good education, the hardware, and we provide them. 

But when you work with children, especially those coming from poor families, such as Evaline, you also have to help them develop that subtle internal software that gives them the self-belief to aim high. 

Children living in poverty sometimes lack the self-confidence to accept that they belong anywhere other than in poverty.

That is especially challenging, given that aspiration, self-belief and high self-esteem are key changers for the outcomes for young people.

As the American economist Bruce Wydick put so well, “poverty causes children to have very low self-esteem, low aspirations.”  He also tells us that it is possible to break this cycle of self doubt passed on from generation to generation. 

Wydick led a study showing that sponsored students tend to fare much better than non-sponsored ones. In his own words:

The big difference that sponsorship makes is that it expands children's views about their own possibilities. Many of these children don't think they are capable of much. We help them realize that they are each given special gifts from God to benefit their communities, and we try to help them develop aspirations for their future.

As I settle in my role as School Director, I am very encouraged to find every sign that St Jude’s is helping our students develop both hard and soft skills for life. It is wonderful to hear Evaline and her classmates speak of their professional aspirations. Our secondary students tell us they want to become engineers, doctors, business executives, journalists, and a number of other professions. 

I am convinced that an important part of the mission for all leaders at St Jude’s is to guide our teams so that they encourage students to have faith in their abilities and to reach for the sky.

At St Jude’s, Evaline has discovered her immense passion for medicine. We will help her strengthen the soft skills of self confidence and hope so that she fulfills her dream to become a doctor and give back to her Maasai community and her country.