Introduction

The Kamitei Foundation (“Kamitei”) is a non-religious charity that aims to make an effective contribution to the education of children in rural Tanzania through small scale investments in facilities and teaching aids and through the granting of individual scholarships. We currently support 8 primary schools and 2 secondary schools in 4 rural communities in Northern Tanzania (Kilimatembo, Kainam, Irkeepus and Oltukai), reaching 3,500 children. Our scholarship program has assisted 60 students so far.

 

Our focus on education is based on the following beliefs:

• In the longer term, education has a strong positive impact on the standard of living of individuals and their communities

• Education has important indirect benefits in areas such as health, birth control and empowerment of communities

• The benefits of education tend to be structural and long lasting: it creates a virtuous circle

Our field activities are based on multiple years of on-the-ground experience in rural Tanzania as to how education can be structurally improved in the most effective and efficient manner, whilst keeping overhead costs to a minimum. We use multiple approaches to reach our aim; we build school facilities, we supply desks, books and teaching aids, we provide housing, training and incentives to the teachers, etc. We don't offer a 'free ride', however: the communities have to contribute themselves as well. This matching principle ensures that the communities are really committed to make things work.

For details about how to make a donation, please click here.

 

Kamitei Foundation is named after the late Mrs Maria Motika, whose Maasai nick-name was 'Kamitei'. Mrs Maria Motika - born in Tanzania, Maasai by origin - had not received modern education herself, but worked hard and succeeded to provide good education to all of her eight children as well as a number of children of relatives. Nowadays, all these children live a relatively prosperous life and two of them managed to obtain a university degree. They both are currently part of the staff of Kamitei in Tanzania, contributing to the creation of similar education opportunities for other children in East Africa.