Hampton and Alison have selected the 2010 S4Si scholars!! After weeks of application reading, interviews, home visits, and even a few tears, we have finally decided upon 8 young women who are academically excellent, passionate about their futurse and their community and in need of the four-year assistance. We are so proud of what they have already accomplished and cannot wait to witness what they will achieve in their final four years of secondary school and beyond. Here are our brief introductions of our new S4Si scholars:
Mirfat has remained number one in her class at Lumumba Secondary School in both Forms I and II. Her English is impeccable, and she wants to become a doctor in the future in order to help women in her community.
Maryam attends Lumumba Secondary School. She shows an interest in international affairs by expressing admiration for George W. Bush and the aid he has provided Tanzania, and aspiring to work for the World Health Organization. Five evenings a week, she tutors primary school students in math and English. She also hopes to one day become a doctor.
Rahma attends Lumumba Secondary School. Every evening, she cooks maandazi (a sweet Zanzibar bread) to sell to her neighbors as an additional income. She hopes to become a doctor to help women, as in Zanzibar, there is a “lack of ladies doctors” – she emphasized to us the importance of helping women, especially mothers. She has placed third in her class in both Form I and Form II.
Hadia attends Lumumba Secondary School. A child of 11, she aspires to become an engineer in order to defy gender norms and serve as a role model for young women in Zanzibar. Hadia is also an artist and loves to draw many different things, including clothing designs, which her sister then constructs!
Wasila attends Lumumba Secondary School. Despite having to study only by the light of a kerosene lamp, Wasila ensures her academic success by solving problems from previous Form II national exams. She finds it important that Zanzibar maintain close relationships with other countries in order to facilitate development. She aspires to become a doctor to help the women in her community.
Nargis ranks number 3 in her class at Ben Bella Secondary School. She hopes to decrease the number of unnecessary deaths in Zanzibar by becoming a doctor. She also acknowledges the problem of early marriage in her community and notes possible solutions, including providing low-interest loans for students to attend secondary school and increasing literacy.
Saida has ranked number 1 in her class at Ben Bella Secondary School in both Forms I and II. She dreams of becoming a doctor in order to help her family and society as a whole. She appreciates the recent developments that Zanzibar’s government has made, including developing free treatment, building apartment buildings, building a home for the elderly, and establishing an orphanage.
Asha is our Delta Sigma Pi scholar from Mombassa Secondary School, the business-oriented school. She aspires to become an economist in order to bring development to her country and decrease poverty. Asha suggests a national exam fund in order to help poor students in Forms IV and VI pay their national exam fees.
Well, there are our scholars! Lots of future doctors, but all of them have a unique perspective on how they can support their community, their families, and themselves. We are thrilled to get to know these young women more over the next two weeks that we are in Zanzibar, but especially over the next four years. We foresee much success with all of them. Neither of us can imagine a more intelligent, optimistic and incredible group of scholars!
-Alison and Hampton
Increases in access to education among girls accounted for a decline of 43 percent in the malnutrition rates between 1970 and 1995.