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About
Bibi Jann School
During
her first trip to Tanzania, East Africa in February 2001,
Jann met Fatuma Gwao, divorced, Muslim mother of four who
ran a pre-school for 13 tots - sans any supplies - in her
three-room home in the suburban village of Mbagala. Jann
was so touched by the bright students and their lack of
playthings that she immediately went back to town and purchased
a few toys and books.
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Bricks
a few hands high in Fatuma's dirt yard outlined her
dream: a real pre-school. Jann took photos and showed
them to everyone she met back home in Portland, Oregon
and asked for donations. The fund grew, and when she
and Eric Sandström married in both the U.S. and
Sweden, they asked for school donations in lieu of
gifts.
Students
moved into the two classrooms in 2002. By winter 2009,
the school grew to 100 students in pre-school through
Grade 4. Eventually, the newly-named Bibi Jann Academy
will go through Grade 7. The children (many of them
AIDS orphans) learn English and get meals at school
- the only food some will have for the day.
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Within
seven years with individual, corporate and charity donations,
the school has become a walled "campus" with running
water, electricity, septic tank and water storage tank.
It includes offices, kitchen, playground, storeroom, toilets
and classrooms. Community meetings and adult classes are
held there, benefiting the village.
The
school is headed by Fatuma's son, Dixon Pyuza, employs several
teachers and is state-certified. Fatuma now heads the GRANDMA-2-GRANDMA
project
American
students from Dartmouth College serve as interns at the
school, and with doctors have formed a fund-raising organization
to help support it. See www.Salamatanzania.org.
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