Sakila Sponsorship Program
This ministry was started in 2003 and educates children in the village. Each student has a sponsor in the U.S. that gives $30 a month for the child’s education. Two campuses have been built, Sluys-Anderson Primary School and Hebron Secondary School. Sluys-Anderson has grades kindergarten through 7th (there is no 8th grade in the Tanzania education system) and Hebron has forms (grades) 1-6 (equivalent to grades 9 th -12 th and two years of Community College). At any given time there are about 1,200 students going to school between the two campuses.
The schools together employee about 90 staff including principals, teachers, assistants and support staff. The salaries are based on education and experience. They range from top-tiered employees at $400 per month to teachers at $220 and support staff at $85 per month. This amount includes the employee’s retirement and taxes. The total cost to operate the two schools is $25,000 per month. $18,000 comes from supporters in the U.S. and the remaining $7,000 comes from boarding students at Hebron.
The first and second classes that graduated from form 6 and took their “National Exams” passed with a B+ average. The 37 students were all assigned universities (in Tanzania, the government chooses the university you will go to according to your grades and field of study) and have been registered. Consider this, if you had 100 village children, only about 10 of them would finish high school and only 5% of the nation has the opportunity to go to college. These 37 students have had their education paid for by the government. They plan to go into mathematics & statistics, pharmacy, education, aviation, teaching, medical work, law, political science, biology, chemistry, finance and etc. God has definitely blessed these students and performed real miracles in their lives.