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Two new schools [2020-03-02]

Our last week in Arusha was a busy one.  Thanks to our long-time partners at Habari Node and Arusha Node Marie, Reneal was able to complete computer lab installations at two new schools.  Welcome Ngiresi Secondary School and Sambasha Secondary School to the Reneal family!  These two public schools, each with about 500 students, are far from the main road.  We are very excited that their students and teachers will now have a computer lab for learning about and with ICT.  With the addition of Ngiresi and Sambasha, Reneal is now supporting 22 public secondary schools in Arusha District.

Since our remaining time was very short, we were only able to spend two days at each school.  Habari Node sent three people for each installation, and our long-time partner Evance Kessy was there from Arusha Node Marie.  It is particularly gratifying that Habari Node sends some of their interns and field students when they support Reneal.  This is a wonderful win-win, where the interns and field students get supervised hands-on learning with an experienced Habari Node technician and the schools get the benefit of the hard work of these young people.  Along with Robert Nyangaka and Erick Mneney of Reneal, it is a fast-moving, professional team!  By lunch time, all of the cabling was completed.  While the installation was going on, Neal and Robert were working with the Super Users to show them how to maintain the system.  Day Two was focused on teaching the Super Users about the educational resources on the Reneal server.  We ended Day Two at each school with Robert leading an orientation session offered to all teachers.

Wednesday Neal and I traveled with Arusha Regional ICT Coordinator David Nyangaka to Mringa Secondary School.  In 2019, 300 students from schools supported by Reneal sat for the Form Two Computer Studies National Examination.  Of those 300, 3 students from Mringa achieved a score of “B”.  David organized a special assembly of all students so we could present certificates to these three high achievers.  We followed that with a lunch meeting with the Arusha District Education Officer, Mr. Lupenza, to discuss Reneal’s progress and issues. 

Neal and I are now back in the US.  We are so grateful to the organizations who made the work of the past six weeks possible, especially VMware, Arm Corporation, and Renew Computers.  The wheels are already turning for the next trip!  Reneal welcomes donations of laptop computers that can have a new life serving students and teachers in Tanzania.

 [Photo: Installations at Ngiresi and Sambasha Secondary Schools]