Rawhiya

I still remember interviewing Rawhija because she spoke so smoothly in her interview and was one of the few girls who could easily understand me as I spoke quickly in English. I could see her passion for learning immediately as she told us about reading English storybooks and the newspaper outside of school in order to improve her vocabulary and her awareness of Zanzibar and surrounding countries. She believes, “Education is like light which can keep me away from darkness,” and said that if she could help anyone, she would help her younger sister study hard to pass her exams and receive a good job because then her sister could help their family. Her passion for education extended to her decision to tell the Tanzanian President Kikwete if she had the opportunity to “Please reduce the school fees in government schools so as to enable all children in the country to get a better education.” It was truly inspiring to see how important she thought education was for every child.

Rawhija’s father is a teacher and she has two older sisters and one younger sister. She loves Biology because she wants to know how living things grow and produce but also how diseases are caused, transmitted, and treated so that she can become a good doctor for her country. She is concerned that there are not enough doctors in Tanzania which is why she desires to become one. At the end of her interview, she asked a big question for all of us, “There are many, many poor countries in Africa. Why do you only help in Zimbabwe and Tanzania?”

Rehema

From the start of the interview I could tell that getting this scholarship meant a lot to Rehema. She started out a little nervous, but still sincerely told us that her family was poor and she would really like to do anything she could to help them. She also explained in the interview that she feels that her level of education is not high enough yet and she wants to have the opportunity to improve it. I was impressed by her passion to learn and concern with helping her family. She realized that through education she could change the life of her family and that is her future goal.
Rehema lives with both her parents and has many siblings, 7 brothers and 4 sisters. She attends Ben Bella Secondary School and her favorite subjects are Physics, Chemistry and math. She ranks number 12 out of the 51 students in her class. She says that by getting a better education she is able to teach her family and friends also.

Written by Bryanna Schwartz

Shemsa

The moment that sticks out in my mind most of Shemsa is her reaction when we told her she had been chosen for the scholarship. The hugest smile spread across her face, and we could all tell how much this would help her family. We all fell in love with Shemsa and her constantly smiling face from the start of the interview. She lives in the girls’ hostel that we have been volunteering at because her family lives on Pemba, a nearby small island, and she wanted to get a better education. I found it inspiring how this girl from a village on Pemba had managed to score well enough on the national exams after primary school to qualify to go to the best secondary school in Zanzibar, Lumumba. She continues to do well, ranking seventh in her class. And yet the more time I spend with her the more impressed I am with how humble she is about everything.
Shemsa has four younger brothers and three younger sisters who all live with her parents on Pemba. She lives in the hostel where we have been volunteering and University of Virginia Students for Students helped build a library. She takes the three hour ferry ride home when there are breaks from school. Shemsa hopes to be a doctor to help improve the health of her family and society. In her interview she said that if she became the minister of education she would build more modern schools for her citizens and especially for the girls because if you teach one girl it is the same as teaching a society.

Written by Bryanna Schwartz

Thania

From the day we met the Form II girls at Ben Bella, Thania stood out, striking us immediately with her infectious intellectual curiosity, constant enthusiasm, and bubbly personality, and every time we visit Ben Bella, she always welcomes us with her unquenchable smile. We were all excited to learn that she had been nominated by her school for our interview process, and after meeting with her individually, our desire to bring her into our program only grew.

She ranks third in her class of 51 students, loves studying English and civics, and wants to become a lawyer to satisfy her passion for human rights. We are confident she will succeed and are so excited to help her along the way, since paying for school seems to be a struggle at times for her and her family. She will be a welcome addition to the S4Si family.

Written by James Norton

Home from Zanzibar

After an almost 50-hour journey (including a stop in London to visit the incredible Tate Modern -- I highly recommend it!) from our beautiful flat in Mkunazini, Stone Town, I am finally home in Boulder and trying to piece together the fragments of thought and reflection I've haphazardly gathered through my experiences over the past five weeks.

I'll spare you the details until they're better organized, but I would like to let you all know how unbeliveably lucky and priviledged I feel to have represented S4Si as a summer delegate and to have been so warmly welcomed into such a tight-knit, vibrant, and loving community we found amongst our friends, neighbors, schools, and most of all, our S4Si scholars.

As I've written before and as you will learn in more detail from reading the profiles of the young women we selected which will be appearing here over the next few weeks, the scholars we support are bright and motivated, passionate and compassionate, and above all, dedicated to improving their lives and those of their families through hard work and education.

Completing secondary school in Zanzibar is not easy, even for those who have the means to afford tuition, fees, books, uniforms, and the widely-utilized outside tutoring schools. The national exams, which arrive every two years and cover nine or ten different subjects, are rigorous and must be written in English; I glanced at some copies of archived example tests and was shocked by how difficult they were.

But for those students whose families must make the constant trade-offs between education and food, clothing, and medicine, or between educating the young men or the young women, finishing school becomes much harder than simply passing these examinations. The S4Si scholars we chose this year face all of these challenges with grace, poise, dignity, and resolve, and I would bet on them to succeed even without our assistance. But Students for Students makes a huge difference in the lives of these empowered and inspirational young women, helping them and their families ensure their future achievements in secondary education and beyond. I am confident that, with our help, the scholars will become the future leaders, businesswomen, scientists, and doctors of Zanzibar and Tanzania. I am so excited to follow their progress in the years to come!

Salma

Salma is awesome. She is number one in her class of 51 students and was the only girl to make A’s in every single class last semester. She has a humble confidence about her which is truly remarkable, for she is smart and speaks very well but does not try to outshine anyone. She spoke with such confidence about her desire to be a doctor and to see the condition of women in Tanzania improved so that women have more opportunities to receive an equal education and to enter the business world. She started out the interview a bit nervous but by the end had the courage to ask me to sing for her! Bryanna had told her once that I liked singing so when we gave her an opportunity to ask us questions she asked me to sing—and I did!

She has seven siblings, three younger and four older, and would love to study in the U.S. in order to learn about economic development and bring ideas back to her home country of Zanzibar. What was probably most touching was when we asked the girls to write about how this scholarship would help them. She said it would help her family to pay the school fees and would help to make sure the rest of her siblings receive an education but she also promised to use her money wisely so that she could try to help those who had not been given the scholarship as well.

Maida: "If you want to educate society, educate a woman."

Hi all!

We just wanted to tell you all a bit more about the scholars we selected so we figured we'd write our thoughts about each scholar for you all to read!

I do not think we will ever forget when Maida told us in her interview that she was so proud to be a woman because she believes, “Women are the nucleus of society. Behind every successful man is a woman. If you want to educate society, educate a woman.” She spoke with such conviction and passion about the strength of women which was so encouraging to see in this society where the women you see walking through the streets do not always emit that same spark of confidence. Immediately upon hearing her talk, I knew we had to select her because her belief in women’s empowerment spoke so well to the heart of our mission at S4Si.

Maida has three brothers and three sisters and lives with her parents. She loves physics and math and wants to study and do well in school in order to improve her family’s standard of living and hopes to have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Mecca some day. If she had the chance to talk to the president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, she said she would advise him to provide the people of Zanzibar with more economic, political and social support, for she is concerned about the political struggles between Tanzania and Zanzibar.