Welcome!

St. Theresia Secondary school is located in Moshi, Tanzania at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Although the school was founded by a Catholic family and takes a Christian name, the students there subscribe to a number of Christian faiths and there are many Muslim students as well. Tanzanian law, in fact, requires that all schools in Tanzania, public and private, provide time and space once a week for students to practice their religion of choice.

Swahili is the medium of instruction in Tanzanian primary schools. Students receive English instruction at this level a few hours a week. Once students enter high school; however, English becomes the medium of instruction. Not surprisingly, students' English skills are very limited when they enter high school, and, in fact, much of the instruction in content classes in secondary school is in Swahili.

But it is critical that students in Tanzania learn English to continue their education and get good jobs. The problem is that there are very limited resources for students at this school. Students are required to share a handful of textbooks, sometimes 40 students to eight books in an English class!

That's why Nick and I started the Books for African Youth campaign. We would like to put at least one book in the hands of each student at St. Theresia. We are looking for donations of dictionaries, thesauruses, and writing handbooks and we are collecting funds so that we can purchace culturally and linguistically appropriate novels.

Donations can be sent to Denise McCarthy, 1122 Delaware Street, Berkeley, Califonia 94702. Shortly we will have an address in Canada as well.

Thank you!