About Emburis
Emburis Pre & Primary School is about opportunity, hope and possibilities.
By providing an affordable daytime English Medium Primary School, Emburis is giving marginalized families in and around Monduli, Tanzania the opportunity to provide their children with a quality primary school education that prepares them for higher levels of learning and achievement. With tuition and costs to the family that are roughly 1/3 that of surrounding private schools, these students can obtain better preparation than in a government school towards the English-based instruction required by the Tanzanian education system at the secondary school level.
Students of Emburis receive two healthy meals each day, allowing them the solid nutrition necessary for serious focus and study. School gardens provide as much of this food as possible, including beans, corn, onions, carrots, squash, and green vegetables.
This physical and academic preparation gives hope to the families that their children will move on to secondary education and achieve their Form 4 Certificate (secondary school completion), something that is not likely for many families in Tanzania. [Recent statistics show that only 1% of the population of Tanzania over the age of 15 has completed their Form 4 education.]
The opportunity of better primary school preparation and the hope of Form 4 completion provide greater possibilities that these children and their families will forge a better living for themselves and help break the cycle of poverty so prevalent in their community.
Emburis began its first class of 28 students in January 2014 and is adding new classes each year, building towards a full complement of classes from the Baby Class (ages 3 – 4), Pre-School (age 5), and Standards 1 through 7. Emburis provides English medium instruction, a low teacher/pupil ratio, facilities, hot lunches, uniforms, textbooks and other materials required to meet the educational needs of their students, with an effort to keep tuition at affordable costs and minimizing any additional costs to the families typically required by other schools.
Emburis Pre & Primary School is an educational outreach of the non-profit Tanzanian NGO (nongovernmental organization) Social Security Support for Women and Children headed by the founder, Teacher Nakaji Lukumay. She and her son, Junior John Lukumay, operate the NGO and the school, and are aided in financial support and resources by other cooperating NGOs and supporters serving children in the Monduli community. Nakaji says, "I want to help the marginalized in our community experience the hope and possibilities of a better future."
Founder Nakaji Lukumay has spent time in all levels of Chimacum Schools, sharing stories, songs, and artifacts from her Maasai culture. If you have students in the Chimacum Schools, ask them about Nakaji. They may have met her once or twice over the years during her visits to Jefferson County.
Those needing more information or wishing to provide support to Emburis Pre & Primary School and/or Social Security Support for Women and Children are invited to contact Abby Jorgensen by email at springchallenge@jccwp.org or Junior John Lukamay by e-mail at juniorlukumay@yahoo.com.
