Ben Bella and FAWE

Today we went back to Ben Bella to meet with more of our scholars. All of the girls always remember the names of the delegations that have come before. So cute! We also met with Form II girls that were identified by their teachers as being high achieving and needy so we could schedule interviews with them.

We passed by the statehouse in Zanzibar and learned that those that score in Division I are invited there for a celebration with Zanzibar’s president, who got his PhD in South Carolina. Very neat.

We also stopped by the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), which is right down the street from Ben Bella, to look into computer classes for our scholars. If they want to go to university, computer literacy is incredibly important. They have 3 week classes for less than 25 dollars on topics such as introduction to computers, Microsoft Word, the internet, etc.

After our visits at Ben Bella and SUZA, we went to the Zanzibar branch of Forum for African Women Educationalists(FAWE), who is our local partner. At FAWE we met Bibi Asma, who has been our main contact person in Zanzibar. We got some feedback from her on our program and also learned of a mentor program that FAWE runs for other NGO’s that give scholarships, which would allow S4Si to have an on the ground mentor checking in on our girls and making sure they have everything they need, are attending class, etc. This seems to be a necessity to make S4Si succeed at what we do and support our scholars in the best way possible.

I also had a ginger flavored soda today, which is now my second favorite drink (chai being the first).

Word of the day:
Chai ya maziwa – Chai with milk