June 30, 2020
Back to School: KGSS reopens with COVID-19 precautions
“Oh Bibi Harry, they just want to come back to Kitenga!” I’m ‘Bibi Harry’, and a couple of weeks ago, when Sister Faustina (Head of School) and I were finally able to connect via a Whats App call, that is what she shared with me. “They just want to come back”. Today, three months…
Read More
March 25, 2020
Together, we can get through this
Friends, You have transformed lives by building and opening the Kitenga Girls Secondary School. In its young life, the school is already facing its second existential crisis, the first being the dorm fire. Together, we made it through the first crisis and ended up stronger and better. Together, we can do it again. This time,…
Read More
October 8, 2019
Another Voice: International Day of the Girl
*This op-ed originally ran in the Buffalo News on October 7, 2019. Millions of girls around the world are out of school, simply because they are a girl. October 11 is International Day of the Girl, a day when advocates around the world highlight the critical need for global gender equality. It’s a day to…
Read More
September 11, 2019
Just back from Kitenga…
It’s a quiet, rainy, Sunday morning – just the welcoming setting I awaited before jotting down some reflections from my recent Kitenga visit. Trip #22? 23? 24? Somewhere along the line I lost count but have come to realize that in reality, Kitenga, Tanzania has become my “second home”. And as it has happened with…
Read More
November 20, 2018
To My Dearest Friends on Thanksgiving…
“Anne, please, when you get home, tell everyone at GEC how thankful we are. Really! Look what’s here. We are so grateful” Sister Lucy Rukwembe My Dear Friends, I am writing to you as I start my journey home after nearly a month in a remote area in northern Tanzania where a remarkable school for…
Read More
September 25, 2018
Dorm Fire: Update
As I write this, it is just over five weeks since a devastating fire ripped through the girls’ dormitory at the Kitenga School for Girls. If you’re hearing this news for the first time after your summer holiday – it’s true. A fire broke out at night, everyone escaped unharmed, but the damage was extensive…
Read More
September 25, 2018
Launch a Leader is Launched!
The transition from sub-par government schools taught in Swahili to the Kitenga Secondary School for Girls (KSSG) where classes are taught in English can be daunting for students. Together, leaders at GEC and the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Africa developed a pilot program that is designed to help students get up to speed before the…
Read More
December 13, 2017
Getting Stronger by the Day
About 43 weeks over the course of 76 months (that’s six years plus change) – that’s the number of days I have spent in Tanzania forming a partnership and building a remarkable school with the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Africa. About 85% of those days were spent chiseling a castle from a rock, shaping a…
Read More
October 9, 2017
Meet Kitenga’s ICT and Biology Teacher: Mr. Nigo
Hi everyone! Emily M Louis here, just wanting to give a proper introduction for this post. I have had the great pleasure of being able to get to know Mr. Claud Masanja Nigo via email the past few months. It sort of feels like having a penpal again! I have to tell you, that he…
Read More
June 23, 2017
What Could Be More Epic?
May 24th, 2017 was the Dedication/Inauguration/celebration, of the opening of the Kitenga School For Girls. May 24th was an epic day. Why? For so many reasons: Mother Nature rested her harsh rains; the new campus looked beautiful and the ceremonial tents, like a fairytale castle. The program demonstrated the girls’ passion, devotion and pride in their…
Read More