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Coming Back Home

From Despair to OSC Headmaster: A Journey of a Rising Star
 
The amazing story, of how 4 students each returned to take leadership roles of their former secondary school that gave them an opportunity to attain secondary school education.

For nearly 30 years, ARK Foundation has worked to increase access to quality education and social support services to vulnerable children and their families in Eastern Africa. Our guiding belief has always been that every child is an opportunity and must be engaged in services that affect their wellbeing. Every child deserves an education.  This is vital for poor families to escape poverty, especially when education is combined with the right tools to succeed.  Statistics show that less than 10 percent of African youth who grow up in extreme poverty manage to become economically successful adults. ARK wrap-around education provides young people an opportunity to create incredible futures for themselves and everyone around them.  
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Whether through volunteering, donating, adopting a grandma or participating in one of our special events means that more vulnerable families will have the opportunity to create stability, dignity and independence that everyone deserves. 
It all started in 1998 during the heat of HIV/AIDS crisis when Rhoi Wangila took a small group of people to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to study the devastation that the HIV pandemic had on poor families. During that trip, the group managed to meet with a few policy makers and community leaders. After the group returned to the US, Rhoi was determined to take action. She returned to the region to start addressing the crisis head on. In 1999, ARK created the One Stop Center (OSC) as a drop-in center for HIV positive poor mothers who came in daily to support one another, have a healthy meal, get free counseling, free medication and other support services. The original center was located in Upanga in Dar es Salaam city close to Muhimbili national hospital where the women were receiving treatment. Later, HIV positive men started showing up. As mothers got weaker and started dying off, they asked ARK if the center could assist with their children's education.
 
In 2000, OSC introduced informal education to youth as ARK continued to offer HIV/AIDS services to affected families. After awhile, ARK put more effort in providing education to vulnerable youth. ARK assisted the women to form their own organization, Tanzania Women Living with HIV, an organization that is still active at present. In 2002, the OSC relocated to Msasani near the US embassy. In 2005, Rhoi Wangila, the center’s founder, was sued in a local Tanzania district court for conducting educational and social services in a middle-class residential area where HIV affected children were not welcome. The case brought national and political attention to the AIDS orphans crisis in Tanzania. The case lasted 9-months. Rhoi and ARK won the case.
 
In 2006, the Kinondoni district government gave ARK 6-acres of land in Boko, where the school is now located.  At full capacity, OSC is able to help up to 350 students.  In 2008, the OSC received its secondary school accreditation from the Ministry of Education. ARK has provided to these young people who are now leaders and contributors to their communities and national economics with access to educational opportunities.  Today, OSC is 85% self-sustaining, 5% local sponsorship with only 10% of its annual operating budget coming from donors. OSC’s success rate is very impressive. On average, 96% of the students who join the school complete their secondary school studies and go on to obtain higher education, and over 85% of the former students stay in touch with OSC and have created their support system. Beside the OSC, ARK has created similar educational programs in every country we work. 

From Despair to OSC Headmaster:  The Journey of a Rising Star

Frank Chibago, a former student at the One Stop Secondary School, (OSC), is now the school’s current headmaster.
 
In a statement, Frank said, “OSC is very special to me, and I am excited that I have been given the opportunity to be the headmaster to a place that gave me the opportunity to earn an education. My professional career started here. It is a true honor, not only for me, but for all the students who have been fortunate enough to call OSC home. It is a true honor that I now have the chance to put it all together, to serve and lead this wonderful school community.”



Frank’s Amazing Journey Hasn’t Been Easy

The year is 2007. “I am done with primary education in my village of Dodoma. Cold thoughts run laps in my brain. Government selection is over. I didn’t make the cut for sponsorship into government secondary school. My family cannot afford to send me to a private secondary school. My brain tingles with the thought of becoming a street vendor like my childhood friend Tim, selling cigarettes at the market place, anxiously calling me to join him. I grapple with the idea all night.” 
 
“Earlier, that day had started out like any regular one.  Dad had gone to Dar es Salaam to attend a meeting, a 5+ hour bus ride from my village. While my father was in Dar es Salaam on an unrelated business trip, he found out about the OSC with it’s the low cost secondary school education.  My father, decided to visit Boko to find out if I could be accepted. There were no affordable private secondary school opportunities in Dodoma for low income families. Upon dad’s return, there was a smile on his face, ‘Frank can go to secondary school’. There was silence! You could hear a pin drop.”  



Frank’s return to OSC

A few years after Frank graduated from the OSC, he joined a teacher’s college about 4 miles from OSC. While attending college, Frank decided to return to OSC as a volunteer teacher since it was easy for him to teach a few days a week. “I thought it was a win-win opportunity to gain teaching experience. All was going well until the headmaster position became vacant”, Frank said.
 
In 2017, Mama Rhoi had a marvelous idea!  “Why don’t we groom Frank, a former student, to replace Dr. Mandai who wanted to reduce his responsibilities?” The idea was perfect!  There was only one challenge: juggling OSC responsibilities while completing his college education. Frank did not shy away from that challenge, he agreed.  Frank eventually graduated from college with a 4.8 GPA.  

“As a college graduate, I know the family feeling of pride and excitement.  The journey that has led me this far is incredible and life changing, the first person in my family to go beyond secondary education, Frank said.”  
 
The Kinondoni District Education Officer, who oversees every school in the district, noted the special opportunity to have a former student return to lead the school. “Frank Chibago is a dynamic hands-on educator.  In district education meetings, he is always asking questions with a desire to learn and grow.  He has helped create a school where strong academics and a rich faith life form a person prepared to face both the challenges and opportunities of the real world with a solid foundation shaped by One Stop values.”


However, Frank is not the only former student at the school.

There are other former students who also work alongside Frank, Erasto Walfgaine is head of Academics.  He graduated last year from Dodoma University with a degree in secondary school education.  During his college years, he returned to OSC during his summer break to volunteer.
 
Rachael Lamek, who graduated from OSC, works as assistant to the school administrator while pursuing higher education. 
 
Jackson Kibigigi returned to OSC earlier this year to teach while pursuing his degree in education at the University of Dar es Salaam.
 
Samuel Dekende
who is attending college, returned to OSC to spend his summer break to help seniors prepare for national examinations.
 
James Mshumbusi, the OSC’s current Board chair was the first project coordinator who worked alongside Mama Rhoi to start the project in 2002. Now an IT professional, James left OSC in 2009 to work with US Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) partner projects in Tanzania. James is still an active part of the OSC family and busy mentoring Frank. James said, “Frank is widely recognized as one of the rising stars in the Tanzania secondary education.  This is an important time in the school’s history, as the school board, the local community and school leadership embark on an unprecedented agenda of facilities renewal and renovation, investment in the school’s faculty, and staff, enhancement of our academic, athletic and arts programming, and celebration of the school’s identity.” 
 
Frank has always demonstrated a strong focus on student life and academic excellence, we are confident his energy and love for OSC will inspire our students and school community to help shape this exciting next chapter in the school history.  Frank’s dream is to improve the school’s access to the internet.
 
THANK YOU!

ARK truly could not have provided education opportunities to students like Frank and many others without you: the countless volunteers, generous donors, and our advocates who have stood with us time and time again. OSC graduates have escaped poverty because a college education is life changing.

 

Many thanks to the following donors who unselfishly trusted in our dream and invested in the early days of OSC: Global Fund for Children - 6 years of financial support; African and American Women Association; Pangea Fund for Global Giving (several years of financial support and volunteer time); Emerly Family Fund (funds to build girl’s dorm); Mulhauser and Associates; Friends of Tanzania USA; Friends of Kenya; ARK Board of Directors and numerous individuals and volunteers. 
We thank you.   

Can we count on you to make a special gift today to provide internet to the OSC school library and science lab for our students to be connected to the global education? If so, please make a gift of any amount, today! We are counting on you, and thank you!
 
 
 
Copyright © 2018 The ARK Foundation of Africa, All rights reserved.


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