The Namayana Project

On October 6, 2020

Welcome to The Namayana Project! Namayana means “blessing” in Swahili. The Namayana Project is the vision of three friends, one in America and two in Tanzania, to create schools in Tanzania. It is our vision and hope to be a blessing to children in Tanzania by opening schools there.

Lisa McKenzie has partnered with friends in the Nanja/Losimingori area in order to accomplish this goal. One, Emmanuel Laizer, is the senior pastor of Olomaiyana Baptist Church. The other, Langoi Sailepu, is the second master of Nanja Secondary School. Together, we have been working towards this project for two years.

  • Our first project is a nursery school for ages (approximately) two to four. Each student will be given a school uniform, school supplies, and a meal of porridge daily. The nursery school will be located at Olomaiyana Baptist Church near Nanja.
  • Our second project is a primary school to be developed from the ground up. We envision a school that continues with dual mediums, both English and Swahili. We also envision a school that will incorporate technology for the students through Google Chromebooks.
  • Our third project is to add a secondary school to our primary and nursery schools. This would continue to be a school that incorporates both English and Swahili mediums and Google Chromebooks for technology.

The school hasn’t started officially yet, but I can tell you that they are ready. One of my partners in Tanzania told me yesterday that the families are ready for us to open!

Our vision is to build a community where each child is encouraged to develop their social, physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities in a loving, Christ-centered setting. The mission of The Namayana Project is to bridge two cultures, American and Tanzanian, by becoming a catalyst for education and community support.

The Namayana Project seeks to provide a learning environment that is stimulating, nurturing, and supportive. Our school philosophy is to provide an age-appropriate curriculum with hands-on experiences to promote natural development through the use of both English-medium and Swahili-medium curriculums. We also hope to foster a sense of community and provide a support system for all of our students and their families.

 

ERP helped me get this vision organized. David spent hours in person, on the phone, and through emails keeping me on task, honing my vision, and guiding me through the process of starting this nonprofit to help children. ERP also bought the first curriculum and training for the nursery school to use. It will be invaluable to the nursery school and the teachers.

I believe that without the help of ERP, I would still be floundering with this dream but no real vision of how to get it off the ground. ERP has supported me with invaluable insight and organizational skills. I had been working on this project for over a year when I began talking to them. Since February of 2020, and the first meeting with ERP, I have been able to create a nonprofit, a website, and begin receiving donations to start our first school in January of 2021.

ERP helped me get this vision organized. David spent hours in person, on the phone, and through emails keeping me on task, honing my vision, and guiding me through the process of starting this nonprofit to help children. ERP also bought the first curriculum and training for the nursery school to use. It will be invaluable to the nursery school and the teachers.

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