Several years ago, the Sisters of the Assumption wished to purchase an area of land just outside Moshi in northern Tanzania to build a girls' secondary school and SHOCC was invited to become a project partner. Sister Schola was appointed project manager. Since then, SHOCC has provided funding to purchase the land, sink a borehole and construct a water tower. We have also helped with classroom construction and provided solar panels throughout the school. Today St Marie Eugenie is one of the best schools in Tanzania providing an excellent secondary education for over 400 girls.

In 2015, Sister Schola was tasked with repeating the Moshi success story at a much more challenging site just outside Singida in central Tanzania. Once again, SHOCC was invited to be part of the story. When trustees Elizabeth Byrne Hill and Kevin Cook visited in 2017, they found the perimeter being fenced, a borehole had been sunk providing clean, fresh water in excellent quantities and a water tower was under construction. The landscape was totally barren with few trees and was windswept and desolate.

When Kevin Cook visited again in October 2022, he found a transformation. Despite the problems caused by the Covid pandemic, Sister Schola and her team had completed the construction of two large four-classroom blocks and had finished most of the work on the toilets and the science laboratories. A septic tank had been constructed with an ingenious waste-water soak away and over 300 indigenous trees had been planted. In addition, Sister Schola had constructed three fish tanks in order to raise funds to pay the resident watchmen who lived on site.

There remains much work still to be done before the first pupils arrive. One of the most urgent tasks is to get a roof on the science laboratories before the local weather damages the fabric. An Italian family visited the site in 2020 and generously provided funding for the laboratories. However, their donation was not enough to roof the building. This SHOCC campaign seeks to raise the funds needed to add the roof and also to provide benches and some laboratory equipment.

Once the laboratories are ready, the school will be able to accept its first pupils. Most of these will transfer from the very successful Assumption primary school at Iguguno, some 30 miles west of Singida. They will start as boarders staying in one of the classroom blocks for their first year whilst dormitories are constructed. The school will also need a dining hall and kitchens. When complete, it is expected that the school with have around 360 pupils.

SHOCC is delighted with the progress of this new school and will continue to offer its support in the future.