- OUR MISSION

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ACADEMICS: Increase the effectiveness of education by providing exception quality education affordable and available to local families.  In Tanzania, average annual fees for government secondary schools exceed $500 USD, while average annual family income is $400 USD. This translates into 7% of Tanzanian families with the financial ability to pay for secondary education. We combine out resources and support to create the best holistic education possible for the most underserved youth in the area.
COMMUNITY CONTEXT: Teach skills and impart knowledge to students and families within the community to change attitudes and behaviors regarding proper nutrition, sustainable agricultural practices, and general animal husbandry. Experience continues to teach us that an Orkeeswa education extends beyond the classroom, reaching deep into the broader community. One of IEFT’s strongest principles is a commitment to building schools in the communities where our students and their families live. Proximity allows us to offer trainings and workshops on varied topics to Orkeeswa families. This process enables us to expand the definition and impact of education.
ATHLETICS: Provide students with opportunities to maintain a health lifestyle while building essential life skills. Through athletics, students gain team-building skills that teach them about working together, the power of collaboration and the strength that comes through supporting one another as they strive towards their goals. Sports optimize healthy living, provide stress-relieving activities and instill a sense of playfulness and joy.
HEALTH CARE: Increase the effectiveness of education by providing exception quality education affordable and available to local families.  In Tanzania, average annual fees for government secondary schools exceed $500 USD, while average annual family income is $400 USD. This translates into 7% of Tanzanian families with the financial ability to pay for secondary education. We combine out resources and support to create the best holistic education possible for the most underserved youth in the area.
LIFE SKILLS: Empower, equip and inspire students to grow as individuals through character development and identity exploration. Exploration of these skills accompanied by positive reinforcement and team building allow youth to build their identity as young educated community members. Tools gained in Life skills classes are translated into daily individual development and implemented at home and in the community through thoughtful decision-making, and empowered choices.
INTERNATIONAL TEACHING STAFF: Utilize experienced, well educated, creative teaching staff to motivate, inspire, and lead students both within and outside the classroom. An influential combination of international teaching staff provides students with a well rounded, personalized, collaborative, and experiential learning environment. Staff from varying backgrounds hailing from countries around the world work together to shift the paradigm of education and present Orkeeswa students with the opportunity to learn in a multicultural environment.
ACTIVITIES & EXTRACURRICULARS: Create opportunities for learning that extend beyond the classroom providing students with hands on learning and an exploration of talents, interests and passions. Clubs offer students participation in cooking, woodworking, art, drama, leadership, running, French, newspaper, environment, music and much more. Through extracurricular activities, students begin to explore their own unique interests and abilities that can become a catalyst for creating their future goals and aspirations.
COUNSELING: Utilize supportive relationships to validate and advocate for students and families. Through counseling students are provided with a safe and supportive environment that keeps their mental, emotional and spiritual health at top priority. Counselors and positive adult mentors help students deal with the multiple outside stressors that are readily present within their culture. Local adults provide an outlet as someone who understands and recognizes their struggles and helps bring to the surface an appreciation of the success that they have already achieved, encouraging youth to continue with education as they strengthen in character and confidence.

Other important components and our approach...

AGRICULTURE. Teach sustainable farming and agriculture practices that instill knowledge and experience result in increased productivity. For rural families, agriculture makes up 60% of the total household income. Working with students to implement new practices of rain water harvesting and crop cultivation allows them increase output on local farms and home based gardens while they are in school. These skills have a high impact as they are passed on to families and community members and education penetrates into the community in a lasting way.

ENVIRONMENT. Create environmental sustainability through sanitation, clean water, and renewable energy resources.  Creating safe water storage through rain-water harvesting and filtration provides a sustainable resource for the daily operations of a school. In addition, our storage facilities provide water for construction projects, cleaning, cooking, campus animals and maintaining the school garden. Construction of renewable solar energy systems provides a source of electricity to power lights, computers, printers, and classroom projectors.

GIRLS. Advocate for equal rights and opportunities for women, while empowering them to use their own voice to create a better future for themselves. On a worldwide basis, women are less likely than men to receive an education and to have a say in determining their future. Today there are 130 million youth, who do not attend school. More than 70% of them are female. But when a girl goes to school, her future changes dramatically. An education imparts the skills, knowledge, and self-confidence to remain HIV negative, marry when and whom she chooses, raise a healthy family, and contribute to her community. These statistics speak for themselves: when women and girls earn an income, on average they reinvest 90% of their earnings in their families. Male rates of family reinvestment average around 30%.

INCOME GENERATING INITIATIVES. Introduce successful micro-finance initiatives to the local community to provide increased economic opportunities for students and families. These micro-finance initiatives allow students to create and implement their own small business ideas within their community, allowing them to gain management, finance, business and leadership skills while generating a small income. IEFT’s holistic approach enables us to provide secondary schooling as well as economic training and opportunity for the wider community.

So, Why Education?

The Problem. The world is spinning, fast. Actually, about 1,000 miles per hour. As technology advances, economies globalize and societies transform, often at breakneck speed, there are many people ill-equipped to keep pace with the dizzying rate of change. In Sub-Saharan Africa the result is that 73% of the population lives below the poverty line. Lacking requisite skills and resources to compete, they are unable to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Solution = Education. Think of the ripple effect. Educating a single student triggers a learning response whose impact travels far beyond the individual student. Moving from student to family, to community, to region, to nation and beyond, the gift of an education knows no boundaries.

The Opportunity. Because all problems present opportunities, we have chosen to focus in the following areas. Much like our holistic approach to educating Orkeeswa students, we believe that our work, when considered as a whole, far outweighs the sum of its parts.

The Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania (IEFT) is a community-collaborative organization, providing quality, affordable education to under-served children in rural Tanzania, East Africa. Through the organization’s collaborative model involving both village government and tribal leadership, IEFT staff members work alongside community members in the implementation of the organization’s projects. Straying from the common “aid giving” model, IEFT believes in educating, equipping and empowering community members by providing youth with the knowledge and skills to create positive change within their own communities. Education is the key in breaking the cycle of extreme poverty.