Africa: a dream realised
The late John Travers, who founded SATW, dreamed of one day actually building a school in Africa. This year, thanks to SATW and the generosity of many, his vision has become a reality - in the form of a new secondary education boarding school at Miono in the Bagamoya District of Tanzania. The first phase of the school has been completed and will help alleviate the desperate shortage of such schools, benefiting students and the wider community for years to come.
How it all started
With the help of his colleague Boris van Haare Heijmeijer in C&W Brussels, John had spent a great deal of time exploring the possibility of building a school in either Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi or Ghana. He was already developing a number of leads at the time of his tragic death in June 2007.
Determined to keep John’s dream alive, Boris and John’s wife Jennie, set off on a fact- finding trip to Tanzania in late 2008. They saw at first hand the severe lack of secondary level education for children in the Bagamoyo District of Tanzania.
Following meetings with the Education Department and local district chiefs in the village of Miono - 150km north-west of Dar Es Salaam - a 100-acre site just 6km outside Miono was selected. With the full backing of the Minister of Education in Tanzania, SATW took up to the challenge to build a desperately needed 2-stream A-level boarding secondary school for the community.
Fulfilling the commitment
Cushman & Wakefield Equity Partners in EMEA had generously pledged to personally provide an extraordinary charitable donation to help finance this initiative. Further financing was subsequently generated via several, highly successful fundraising initiatives - notably, a sponsored bike ride from London to Bruges in which 50 of the firm’s capital markets team participated in 2008 and a sponsored climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro by 13 people representing eight offices in summer 2010. In total a sum of £700,000 was donated via SATW to Ministry of Education in Tanzania to build the school.
C&W’s project management head Alan Day and Boris have closely monitored the project from the early negotiations and planning stages, making several visits over the past few years to view the ongoing works and to meet contractors and government representatives.
Just over 21 months since the building works commenced, the first phase of this co-educational boarding school has been completed and will officially open in early 2012, with 384 students, 22 teachers and 21 non-technical staff who have been selected and are ready to be transferred to the school.
The first phase consists of 12 classrooms, 3 laboratories, 2 computer rooms, 1 geography room, 8 dormitory blocks, 4 shower and WC blocks, dining and meeting hall accommodation, extensive grounds and sports pitches as well as separate teachers’ housing. The long-term intention is that the Tanzanian government will proceed with Phase II, which would double the number of students to 768.
