Victims Of Early Pregnancies,Tanzania

PELO’S ACTIVITIES THAT NEED A SUPPORT FROM DONORS

According to the Education and Training Policy of the United Republic of Tanzania (www.moe.go.tz) the formal education system does not allow the girl in schools who get pregnant to continue with studies. That means the school dropouts due to pregnancy stay at home. This has implicated for increased sex workers in various towns in Tanzania. To intervene on the problem, in 1995 Promotion of Education Link Organization (PELO) started to implement the program known as “Mpango wa Elimu ya Sekondari kwa Walioikosa”translated as “Program of Secondary education training for those who were not lucky of getting it at the formal education system”. We have classes for those who ended in form one, two and three. Those who ended in form one and two complete four four in three years and those who ended in form four complete in one year. They sit for national secondary examination as private candidates.

Immediately after starting the program we also received a great number of orphans school dropouts, the young females who missed secondary education due to forced marriages. Few had guardians to pay for their fees and for this case we managed to support only three orphans every year.

Achievements to date:
Out-of-school youth and young adults who could not (and lost hope to) attain secondary education at formal age were trained and attained it.

Output:
120 out of school youths and young adults school drop out have attained secondary education.

Impact:
-A number of skilled youth and young adults who were not accepted in labour market due to lacking secondary education got employment.
-A number of youth and young adults particularly nurses, medical assistants and Technicians who missed the opportunity of joining higher education due to lacking secondary education, joined the studies.
-Out of school drop-outs who had lost a hope of attaining secondary education attained it and joined in advance level/colleges.

Lesson learnt:
When the program started in 2005, a great number of secondary school dropout featured to join the program. Majority of them were victims of early pregnancies. We observed that the school dropout due to pregnancy is correlated to mushrooming of sex workers in urban centres. This situation catalyzed us to join force with other educational CSOs to demand for a need of a government to rethink of a policy of accepting students who get pregnancies to continue with studies.

We depend on fees from students who manage to pay for the program but its few ones who can manage as a result it becomes a challenge to pay allowances of teachers and rent for classes. Certainly, if we get a financial and material support, the program could have more impact.

We are currently running the program in Dar es Salaam but we plan to expand it to three southern regions which are peculiar on early pregnancies and Shinyanga region which is peculiar for forced marriages.

OUR STRATEGIC REQUIREMENTS:

1.We are seeking for financial and material resources support from donors so that in 2011 we accommodate 100 school dropout young mothers from poor families, 50 school dropout orphans and 50 sex workers who dropped due to pregnancies or poverty. The support will be availed for class rents, allowance for teachers other administrative expences.

2. We are seeking for development partners to support our finalized five years strategic plan which have a strategic focus on education improvement, Local Government Budget, gender and reproductive health.

Organization Particulars:

Name: Promotion of Education Link Organization (PELO)

Address: P.O Box 15864,Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa

Cell: +255 754271814, +255 712008700

Email: pelohq2000@yahoo.co.uk

Website: www.envaya.org/pelo

PELO is a not for profit organisation which was registered in 2000 under
societies ordinance with registrstion NO.SO 10321 and on 11th April 2011 it
complied with NGOs Act No.24 of 2002 and duly registered with registration
number 00001378.PELO envision to see the education development that realize the
improvement of lives of people from poor families of Tanzania.Its mission is to
develop and promote the education initiatives which empower children and youths
to acquire knowledge that will enable them to become self reliant.