School garden to enable nutrition of students in seven schools, Tanzania, Tanzania Project

While the state of the local schools has significantly improved over the last 25 years, and good teachers have been attracted and maintained, one challenge remains: due to the poverty in the region, many children are attending school from 8 am to 5 pm without any meal in between. As a temporary solution, Tanzania Project (TP) has financed warm lunches for the examination cohorts at secondary schools (beans and maize). Longterm, however, the schools should be enabled to provide lunch to all pupils, ideally from their own resources. Therefore, TP has now started the “School Garden Project” in 7 selected secondary schools, with the goal to educate them to produce their own food on the school grounds. In 2023, maize fields were set up, with support from BASAID and Global Giving. For 2024, a follow-up and extension is planned, where seedlings such as bananas and avocados are purchased and grown until fruits and vegetables can be harvested. Students will get hands-on experience in growing food and learning about nutrition and the schools will be able to use this food for providing meals.