The fund supported young men and women to realize their educational dreams and aspire for a bright future.
The beneficiaries have completely changed their lives for the better, after graduating from schools and colleges.
Frida Mollel, the Head of Community Development Outreach Programme at Grumeti Fund said in an interview that the initiatives include scholarships, internships, teaching support programme (TSP), life skills training, girls empowerment sessions and placement of graduate teachers with competency in mathematics, english and science subjects.
“The scholarship programme is divided into various categories that are suitable for secondary school students both at ‘O’ Level and ‘A’ Level, those enrolling for VETA, colleges and universities,” says Frida.
Latest figures show that last year alone 225 students from the targeted villages were awarded scholarships.
The scholarship programme started in 2003, so the number of beneficiaries is huge, according to Frida.
Students enrolling for VETA specialize mostly in hospitality, electrical installation and other vocational courses.
“Under the TPS initiative, we employ university graduate teachers on a contractual basis, and post them to 26 primary schools to help address a shortage of teachers. Emphasis is on science, english and mathematics. Last year, we managed to support about 20,782 students and the programme is on-going,” Frida points out.
She also stated that during the same period, a total of 52 teachers were employed and sent to the primary schools, as part of Grumeti Fund’s ongoing initiative to boost academic performance of children hailing from villages where residents depend on poaching as one their major sources of income.
Grumeti Fund also has a life skills initiative which brings together secondary school students for capacity training sessions when schools are closed for holidays. This programme reached 106 students in 2022.
During the same year, a total of 2,869 students participated in the Grumeti Fund girls’ empowerment sessions designed to enable girls achieve their educational dreams, by overcoming numerous obstacles including child marriage and FGM.
“The girls empowerment sessions programme targets all secondary schools in the 21 villages. What we do is bring them together to listen to key speakers who are women role models from various fields. For example, there was a time we invited a woman pilot. We are also educating the girls to say no to child marriages and FGM,” Frida adds.
Child marriages and FGM have been a major setback to women emancipation in Mara region where such harmful cultures are widely practiced.
According to Frida, the girl’s empowerment sessions which kicked off in 2017, now involve boys also, as a strategy to end outdated cultures and beliefs that do not favour the development of girls’ education.
“We are now conducting girls’ empowerment sessions through boys. They are enlightened on the importance of assisting their sisters to achieve their education dreams,” says Frida.
Another significant education initiative to help the students excel in their studies is the mentorship programme that involves some Grumeti staff.
“In 2022 we had 18 educational mentors including myself. I have three children; our task is to guide them on how they can fare well in their studies. A girl is given a female mentor and a boy gets a male mentor,” says Frida, adding that the number of mentors has risen to 25.
Grumeti Fund is a non- profit-making organisation that supports community development and conservation activities in Western Serengeti.
On the other hand, Grumeti Reserves is an ecotourism company owned by an American investor. The company operates several luxurious lodges in western Serengeti often named as the best hotels in the world, hence helping promote the country’s tourism sector globally.
In order to inspire students with conservation issues, the US investor established a modern Environmental Education Centre (EEC) in 2004 that receives groups of Form three students each year from 16 secondary schools bordering Ikorongo- Grumeti Game Reserves.
While at the EEC, the students are trained on environmental conservation matters and given a game driving opportunity within the wildlife rich- game reserves which form integral part of the Serengeti eco-system.
“Each group spends five days at the centre and apart from viewing beautiful wild animals they also visit our hotels. This helps them realize the connection between tourism and conservation,” she said.
In 2022 , a total of 512 students visited the EEC, according to Frida.
The presence of the American investor in western Serengeti has also seen establishment of Singita Community Culinary School (SCCS) that now produces world class chefs who are young men and born and brought up in the 21 neighbouring villages.
SCCS is one of Singita’s flagship community partnerships supporting the hospitality and tourism sector in Tanzania.
The school offers talented young adults from communities immediately adjacent to Grumeti Reserves Concessions, the opportunity to gain the necessary skills and experience to pursue exciting careers as chefs.
Upon graduation, SCCS students acquire an internationally recognised City and Guilds Level 2 Diploma in Professional Cookery.
Graduates from SCCS can now work anywhere in the world, according Amelia Neethling, the Executive Chef at Singita Grumeti lodges in Tanzania.
This follows what can be described as a remarkable achievement by SCCS to introduce the City and Guilds Level 2 Diploma in Professional Cookery which is recognized internationally.
The first group of eight students will benefit from the diploma course this year and Amelia is excited that the students can work anywhere in the world after graduating from the school.
“With the new qualification, our SCCS chefs can work anywhere in the world because the diploma is worldwide recognized,” she points out.
The SCCS admits a group of eight students, all hailing from the 21 villages bordering Grumeti Reserves each year.
The students are given full scholarships by Grumeti to pursue the course which takes 18 months.
“They get scholarships and we are also giving them accommodation and pocket money. This is part of our Community Outreach Programme which supports sustainable conservation through job creation and education,” Amelia explains.
So far more than 50 students have successfully graduated from SCCS, whose first intake started in 2015 and some of them have had luck to be employed by Singita Grumeti lodges.
“About 28 of the students are currently working at Singita Grumeti lodges and others are also working at various lodges in Tanzania. We are so proud of the students, they are committed and hardworking,” the Executive Chef of Singita Grumeti Reserves lodges says.
She says the idea behind establishing SCCS was to create world class chefs for the fast-growing hospitality industry in Tanzania.
“Our dream is to make SCCS bigger so that we can reach more people and get more chef skills developers to assist us in these efforts,” Amelia further says.
Chipegwa Moses, a chef skills developer at SCCS says the beneficiary students are enjoying their studies.
“I am also doing my best and the students are always happy to be in the chefs class,” said Chipegwa who was trained in South Africa for a similar course. He now has a seven-year working experience with Singita Grumeti lodges.
Martha Baare, the Head of Human Resources Department at Grumeti Reserves says each year the company awards internships to an average of 20 to 30 students from various fields.
“They do internship at various departments including tourism, workshop, community outreach, research and monitoring, maintenance and anti- poaching. Even now we do have students from VETA who are beneficiaries of Grumeti scholarships,” Martha said.
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