Facts About Tanzania

Universal primary education is cited as one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, yet the UN recognizes it is “unlikely” Tanzania will attain this goal by the projected year of 2015. Annual per capita income is approximately $250 and most families depend upon subsistence farming to survive. Annual private school tuition costs are beyond their means. Almost half of Tanzania’s districts report primary school enrollment below 50%, and secondary enrollment is far less.

Initially, poverty prevents parents from sending their children to school, and the perceived inappropriateness of education to real life requirements, that is, poor relevance of the curriculum to equip students with appropriate life skills, reinforces this reluctance of families to support education. Moreover, girls are less likely to be educated than boys as, when they marry, often as young as 13 to an older man with multiple wives, they are no longer participants in their birth family. These young women also have a high likelihood of contracting HIV from their husbands and passing the virus along to their children.

GTL wants to break this cycle of impoverished dependence that women in East Africa face by literally saving the lives of young girls through education. Most of our students attend all-girl boarding schools which we were able to inspect during our visit in May. These schools provide them with a protective and nurturing environment, while encouraging them to take the time to mature and begin to imagine a life that reflects GTL’s vision statement of “a world where all women receive the education they need to realize their own potential and fulfill their own aspirations for themselves, their families and their community.”