The students and staff at St. Paul Nursery, Mwanza, Tanzania 

My name is Josephine John. I am a Tanzanian lady. I am the director at St. Paul Nursery School found in Mwanza Tanzania. I qualified a certificate in Montessori Early Childhood teaching education in 2007 in Mwanza Tanzania. I have been in this field of teaching for 10 years now. I started teaching in 2008 at an orphanage centre called Village of Hope found in Mwanza Tanzania. The orphanage has children of 1-18 years old. It also has children with special needs. I worked for 3 years as a teacher and then I was promoted to be the headteacher for 5 years.

The students at St. Paul Nursery are avid readers. 

GROWTH OF MY INSPIRATION
While I was working at Village of Hope, there were some children with special needs as well as normal children from families with limited resources access who really needed more extra support and attention in learning who were outside the orphanage. Basing on my carrier and my willingness to support children in needy, thoughts came to my mind. For this reason in 2016 I decided to start a school where by children can have right to develop their fullest potential and the mission of St Paul school is to provide a safe, nurturing and educational environment for every student.

Construction has started on the home for students with special needs. 

ABOUT DEMOGRAPHICS
At St Paul we have children with disabilities and normal children. 8 children have disabilities and 60 without disabilities. Our plan is to have at least 400 children to attend to our school in both nursery and elementary classes. The area where our nursery School is small. It can only accommodate 150 pupils. In September this year we have managed to get a land which can accommodate the number of pupils we wish to have and also we can construct a home for special need children in it. Many special need children in our community are abandoned by their families, so by constructing a home for them it will be of great help.

Children showing a package of books from the Canadian International School of Hong Kong. 

While I am appreciating the support we got from Rebecca Tupling, Moira Litchfield, Tini Bennett, the Canadian International School of Hong Kong, Gabriel (a grade 2 student) from the Canadian International School student and Kathy (a grade 11 student) at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong.  They have played a great role in the development of our school. They have helped create opportunities for students at St. Paul Nursery.

Thank you for reading my post and learning more about my passion and the development of St. Paul Nursery.

For more information and updates regarding St. Paul Nursery check out ‘Mwanza Matters’ on facebook!