Iharara Primary School
Iharara is a small village in the Diocese of Mara, North West Tanzania. Linthwaite Ardron been linked with them since 2013 and our Headteacher has made three visits there.
The village is on the edge of the Serengeti National Park and is very poor. The school is state run and most of the children are taught in classes of more than 60 and up to 100. The roll is currently around 750 pupils. The children have to have a uniform to come to school and this is often passed along from sibling to sibling until it is in a very ragged state. Teachers are poorly paid and hard to recruit.
The children bring a pancake for lunch and are given a cup of ugali - a kind of maize porridge which is the staple diet of Tanzania. Some of the children walk up to ten miles to get to school each day.
We have helped the school by plastering walls and laying cement floors in classrooms as well as paying for desks, books, pens and pencils and a wall clock so teachers return to class on time after break!
