A year later, the Foundation opened the doors of the adjacent Tuwapende Watoto Nursery and Primary School.

The construction of the school was progressing as planned. Since mid 2010 two nursery classes, the bathroom facilities and the administration building strated their operation. The administration building was used for the the first, second and third level classes. This was the start of our ownTuwapende Watoto school.

In mid-2012, we moved into the first school building. The large dining room with school kitchen started their operations and by the end of 2012, the other three school buildings were ready. This campus includes the nursery playground, a large school playground and an amphitheater which were completed in December. By January 2013, the school children were able to have access to the entire school.

The pride of the Foundation is the solar system based on the latest technology and donated by the state of Luxembourg. It provides energy for the operation of the orphanage and the school plant. This system illustrates the importance of the sustainable and careful use of resources that we employ throughout the Tuwapende Watoto Foundation.

In addition to the solar system, we have a modern water treatment system on all buildings with water connections.All water is heated by the sun, thus sterilized and prepared as hot water for the two kitchens, showers and laundry facilities for the orphanage as well as for the school. This is an example for a meaningful use of available solar power.

With the acquisition of Dr. Mkumbi’s plot about 200 meters east of our campus, we will have the opportunity to operate a vegetable and fruit plantation for use of both the school and the orphanage.

In the coming years, we also plan to build an apprentice workshop for girls and boys. If we secured the funding and will train young people from our school as well as other children in the area. We will cover another important need in the training chain of young people and enable primary school graduates to prepare for professional life. We are planning training courses for the following job profiles: tailors, gardeners, builders, painters, masons, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, welders, wood builders, etc.

In order to build a vocational training center, the foundation council decided in November 2012 to buy the 44,000 m2 site near the existing school (5 minutes walk). There are plans to build several buildings with three classrooms for the operation of an apprentice workshop. By 2020, we plan to build five school buildings. The size of the property allows us to create additional buildings if necessary.

The Tanzanian state is not in a position to provide the primary and secondary school leavers with sufficient training places. Unfortunately, there are only a few vocational training centers in Tanzania. The existing apprentices’ workshops are well organized, but the number of institutes is too small to meet the immense demand.
There is a lack of everything – school building, money for books and finance for the teachers’ salaries. Also the families are not able to pay the costs for the school. Above all, the girls remain without education.

With the current projects, the Tuwapende Watoto Foundation is making an important contribution to the positive development of young adults in the field of vocational education and training. We want to help pupils who can not attend secondary school for financial reasons or due to insufficient school performance. We want to promote their skills, teach them technical understanding and also teach general knowledge such as computer skills, accounting, English or marketing.

The professional know-how gained through the training and the extended general education will help the absentees to have more success on the labor market. Within our project, we also want to support the graduates with the supply of tools and / or microcredits. This would enable them to become independent and build their own business.

In 2016 we realized the first step of the vocational training center with the construction of the first two school buildings, the toilets and the gatehouse. In the six classrooms  , since the beginning of 2017, we   have been training two vocational school classes for tailors, a class for bakers and a class for gardeners. In summer of 2017, we will start construction of the third building with three classrooms and start operation at the end of the year.

During the apprenticeships, the apprentices will undertake the maintenance work for all our buildings, planting and harvesting necessary vegetables and fruits for the school and the orphanage, baking the bread for the schoolchildren and the orphanage, as well as sewing clothes for the school uniform.

The proximity to our school has the advantage that we can use existing facilities such as the school kitchen and dining room also for the apprentices and the teachers of the training center.