Our Club has approved a £400 grant to St Augustine’s Primary School in Buruguni, Dar es Salaam. This will be matched pound for pound by UK teacher Robin Gray, creating a total fund of £800 to provide much-needed educational resources for the school. While much of our giving supports local causes, we also recognise the importance of helping further afield where it can make a real difference.

St Augustine’s English Medium Primary School is a registered diocesan school serving around 350 to 450 pre-school and primary-age children in a low-income urban community where families face significant poverty and where educational resources are limited. The surrounding settlement is overcrowded, with limited sanitation and stretched resources, and teaching conditions are still heavily reliant on blackboard and chalk.

The application followed a recent visit and presentation to our Club by Robin Gray and Cathy, UK-based teachers, who spoke about teaching at St Augustine’s and the school’s longstanding connection with a partner school in Hereford through teacher exchanges. From a wider list of needs including a photocopier, printer and textbooks, the immediate priority identified for support is either a printer or a substantial number of textbooks.

What the grant will fund

The Rotary grant of £400, together with Robin’s matching contribution of £400, will create a total of £800 for essential school resources. This level of funding would be enough to purchase either one printer, estimated at about 1,000,000 Tanzanian shillings, or around 100 textbooks at roughly 10,000 shillings each.

These are not minor extras but basic tools that can make a direct difference to teaching and learning in the classroom. In a setting where resources are tight and textbooks are expensive, even relatively modest funding can have a meaningful impact on children’s day-to-day education.  The school itself is an established registered institution with clear educational aims, including providing quality and accessible education.

This grant reflects our commitment to practical, carefully monitored projects that can make a tangible difference. In this case, a relatively small sum will help strengthen educational opportunity for children at St Augustine’s Primary School and support a partnership built on trust, personal involvement and a shared commitment to learning.

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