Chaangaja School is situated in Ugweno, a remote place at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. In Tanzania primary school education is compulsory and well provided, meaning that literacy rates in this East African Country are unusually high. Unfortunately after this promising start the government education budget dried up and consequently it's the communities' responsibility to apply for infrequent and inadequate government grants to set up and run secondary schools.

Chaangaja School was built in 1998, by Ugweno locals, under the supervision of Mr. Tunzo Saidi in response to the huge demand for secondary school education. The school has expanded from one classroom in 1998, to a successfully managed establishment that now educates 446 students (221 males and 225 females).

Gareth Jones, a founding member and trustee of The Gazelle Trust, was a volunteer teacher in this community-run school from January until July 2006 and lived with a Tanzanian family in this beautiful district. During the duration of his stay Gareth saw, and was advised of the clear needs of this school, and took it upon himself to involve The Gazelle Trust and commit our assistance. Whilst working in Chaangaja School Gareth oversaw the refurbishment of the school library, which included contracting local carpenters to build 40 chairs and desks, and installing 3 computers.

In this project we have provided a safe and comfortable learning environment for these school children to study in; the majority of children do not have household electricity so struggle to complete their homework under candlelight. The Gazelle Trust has been in communication with The World Bank Book Project and is currently negotiating a supply of textbooks to be shipped to this school.

In recent years the school has built a computer room with a meagre grant from the government. Sadly a lack of funds, despite constant application to the government, has left Chaangaja School without one vital ingredient to make this project a success, the computers.

On the 23^rd October 2006 The Gazelle Trust shipped 9 computers to Chaangaja School to supplement the three computers bought by Gareth through the Tanzanian organisation ACTT (Affordable Computers and Technology in Tanzania). It was essential however to adequately furnish and equip the current building to enable it to function as a new computer lab.

In mid-2007 this project was completed though collaboration with ACTT (who are affiliated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and carpenters from the Ugweno District; electricity, surge protectors and glass windows have been installed, as well as a white board for teaching and the necessary benches and tables. As detailed in the project report (see pages 1 and 2), three teachers from Chaangaja school were trained by ACTT in computer skills and teacher training during a month long course; one of these teachers has also been trained in computer maintenance. This goes hand in hand with the maintenance contract provided by ACTT through which they will carry out all maintenance and repair work on the computers with no further cost to us. The contract between ACTT and the Chaangaja school additionally states that this new computer lab will double as a community training centre, offering lessons on basic computer skills to those whose opportunities at school have passed. Barton Willmore, Town Planning, Master Planning and Landscape Consultants, who kindly donated the computers and generously contributed £400 to aid their delivery, made this possible.

The Gazelle Trust ultimately intends to supply this school with 30 computers. In a school of over 400 and with class sizes of roughly 30 it would be impractical to teach a computer lesson with any fewer computers. Although this may seem luxurious, in Tanzania, where 40% of 18-25 year olds are unemployed, a person cannot apply for any reasonable job, even as a secretary, without being computer-literate. In Ugweno, the nearest available computer is a two hour bus ride away; these students have no opportunity to even turn a computer on.