Advancing local-led community development, one step at a time.
At REACH Shirati, we believe increasing education and healthcare access is key to fostering long-term development and improving the quality of life for the community of Shirati.
We are community-led – working side by side with community members and leaders, providing funding and resources while they inform all key decisions about our programs.
We run four main programs, focused on education and healthcare in the rural Shirati region of Tanzania.
New Tina’s Pre- and Primary School, founded by REACH Shirati in 2012, stands as a model of educational excellence in the Shirati region. With over 450 students enrolled, the school is committed to providing high-quality bilingual education in Swahili and English.
Since fluency in English is a prerequisite for secondary school, our bilingual approach ensures that students are well-prepared for secondary school entrance exams and classes.
The school operates under a governance model that includes community leaders and parents, ensuring alignment with local needs and values. Their decision-making follows traditional methods for arriving at consensus.
Over the past few years, New Tina’s School has consistently ranked among the top-performing schools in the district on secondary school entrance exams, with a remarkable success rate for its female students. This achievement is a testament to the supportive and inclusive environment and dedicated teachers at the school, where gender respect and empowerment are integral to the curriculum.
The school’s gender respect class, available to all girls and boys with the permission of their families, has resulted in a lower teen pregnancy rate among its female graduates.
In July, 2023, New Tina’s Pre- and Primary School opened its doors at a new location in Obwere, a more populous area of Shirati. Now that the school has moved from the old campus in the rural area of Nyamagongo to the more populous area of Obwere, New Tina’s School can expand its reach to serve a larger proportion of school-age children in the Shirati region.
Thanks to our successful capital campaign, we were able to build this new school on a larger campus, alleviating overcrowding and allowing for future expansion.
Given the school’s outstanding scholastic record, this move to a population center has the potential to enhance opportunities for many more children and their families.
REACH Shirati’s Community Health programs are grounded in a collaborative approach that prioritizes the local perspective.
Our main project is the Hospital Food Program, which provides over 18,000 nutritious meals annually.
Shirati Regional Hospital, like many rural hospitals, cannot afford to feed its patients. Families are expected to feed them, but many can’t provide adequate meals or live too far away. The situation is even more dire for children hospitalized with malnutrition, who desperately need nutritious meals.
The meals are primarily provided in the maternity and pediatrics wards but are also provided to other patients who do not have families that can provide meals during their hospital stay. The six permanent residents of the hospital in the leprosy ward also receive meals daily.
Our Hospital Food Program is conducted in close collaboration with the hospital’s medical director and has drawn on the expertise of international researchers.
In June 2022, the Tanzanian Government awarded the Uhuru Torch to our Hospital Food Program, recognizing it as a superior development project. This award recognized excellence and innovation in the “Peanut Project,” which created a production unit at Shirati hospital to prepare ready-to-use therapeutic food for children admitted with severe malnutrition.
The REACH Shirati Scholarship Program follows the same community centered approach as all of our education programs. We aim to ensure that children in the Shirati region can pursue their educational aspirations, regardless of financial circumstances.
Our scholarship financially supports students advancing from New Tina’s Pre- and Primary School to secondary school or higher education by covering tuition fees, boarding fees, school supplies, and testing fees.
We maintain close communication with families to engage and inform them about their children’s progress, reinforcing the importance of pursing higher education.
Our monitoring system requires scholarship recipients to submit their grades regularly and check in with our scholarship team each semester, allowing us to provide additional support and mentorship as needed.
As the program evolves, we aim to increase scholarships, broaden supported educational pathways, and enhance mentorship and support services. By doing so, we assist more students in reaching their potential and contributing to their communities’ sustainable development.
In 2022, REACH Shirati tracked our primary school graduates and found that girls tend to lag behind boys academically starting early in their secondary school careers.
As a result, with support from local health and hygiene NGO Maji Safi Group, we developed an academic mentorship program to provide support starting early in their secondary school careers, when it could have the most impact on their future.
Translating directly to ‘girls with school’ from Swahili, Binti na Shule is a weekly class that provides academic enrichment and intensive support for 50 first and second year female secondary students. It is designed to be a space for them to discuss the specific challenges they face with a trusted mentor, as well as a reprieve from typical academic classes.
We make sure girls are fully informed about the prerequisites required for further education in a wide variety of professions, provide weekly drop-in counseling sessions for those who want individualized support from our program mentor, and much more.
Girls in our program have access to academic mentorship and counseling, and we involve parents and guardians for holistic support. We offer a curriculum that addresses menstrual hygiene and health issues, fostering an inclusive and comprehensive educational experience.
The Gender Respect Project is a culturally led education program at New Tina’s focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV). As a project that works with both girls and boys, The Gender Respect Project is designed to be empowering for girls and transformative for boys.
The project increases awareness in order to promote mutual respect between boys and girls, deter early adolescent pregnancies, prevent HIV and STIs, and inform about menstrual hygiene.
Ultimately, the project improves the quality of life for students, increasing their chances of remaining in school throughout secondary school. The classes have been developed in close collaboration with teachers to ensure that they fit with the local culture, and cover a range of topics associated with SRHR and GBV, such as body changes, menstrual health, and violence against women.
Class discussions cover social norms, myths, and stigmas associated with these topics while exploring concepts like human rights, gender rights, respect, dignity, and equality. All participants must have permission from their parents/guardians and all students must express prior interest in joining the class.
Fred has been working full-time for REACH Shirati since 2008. Born in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, he earned his diploma in Management and Information Technology at the Institute of Management and Information Technology (CATS) in Dar Es Salaam. As the Project Manager for all of REACH Shirati’s Tanzania endeavors, Fred is in charge of the administration of Tina’s School and the Hospital Food Project. He also takes excellent care of our volunteers when we are in the village and is much loved in that role!
Michaela is a UC Davis Alum who first visited Shirati to volunteer as a teenager. After frequent visits, she did a senior thesis on local perceptions of volunteers in Tanzania before moving to Shirati to work for REACH full-time as a project manager. She facilitates our New Tina’s art program, manages our scholarship program, and has started a pilot program called Binti Na Shule with the goal of improving academic outcomes for secondary school girls.
Rose was born in Mwanza, Tanzania, and completed her Bachelor’s degree at St. Augustine University in Mwanza. She studied Sociology, afterward becoming a social worker, and later teaching at the local Shirati Nursing College. Rose is the lead in our newest program, Binti na Shule, and she also works with REACH as a consultant on our scholarship program and a research assistant on various projects.
Jovine was raised in Shirati and received his nursing degree at Shirati Nursing College. He worked as a nursing teacher for five years before transitioning into full-time research on a very successful project with the goal of bridging the gap between traditional medicine and mainstream medicine. Jovine is the lead in our scholarship program, consults with REACH on various affairs, and assists in the development of new projects.
Hattie was an educator for 38 years and after retiring as Principal of a local high school in Richmond, CA, she has dedicated her time to serving her church and other local nonprofit organizations. She joined REACH Shirati (formerly AISCS) in 2009 and has served as our president since 2012. Hattie visits Shirati-Nyamagongo annually.
Laura is a Clinical Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for 28 years. She served on the Alameda County Mental Health Board for eight years and on the Board of Solar Roots for six. Laura has been the REACH Chief Financial Officer since 2006 and has led ten of our volunteer trips.
David had a career as a technical writer in the software industry and as a developmental psychologist doing research on language acquisition at UC-Berkeley. Since retiring in 2013, he has devoted his time to both local and global volunteer activities. He has served on our Board since 2006 and has traveled to Shirati many times.
Stacie is a young professional in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Conservation & Resource Studies and a minor in Global Poverty & Practice. Stacie is passionate about serving local and international communities through her Rotary Club and other nonprofit organizations. She has traveled to Shirati twice since 2013.
Judy is a family medicine physician who has provided obstetric, gynecologic, and HIV care at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center for more than thirty years. At CCRMC she led the obstetric training of family medicine residents planning careers in global and underserved healthcare, and she also served as Chair of the Dept of OBGYN. She visited Shirati with her son in 2005 and joined the board in 2022.
Steven is a retired technical writer who worked for several Silicon Valley technology companies.
He has been a longtime supporter of REACH Shirati and is the co-founder of REACH Shirati’s Hospital Food Project, which he helped establish in 2008 with the goal of serving nutritious meals to the patients at the Shirati Hospital.
Kate is a retired professor of creative writing and the author of five books. A longtime supporter of REACH Shirati, she is a co-founder of our Hospital Food Project. She is a member of the Board of NAMI San Francisco (National Alliance on Mental Health), and a volunteer with Breakthrough, an academic enrichment program for students in grades 5-12 with limited educational opportunities, helping them to achieve their dream of attending college.
Jenny grew up in Shirati, graduated from the University of Dar-es-Salaam with a degree in Economics, and is currently pursuing pre-med studies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jenny’s knowledge of the educational system in the Shirati region has been invaluable to guiding our graduates and help build our educational plans.
Jeff is a middle school teacher in Berkeley, California. He has had the great experience of working with the teachers and students at New Tina’s School during two trips to Shirati, Tanzania. Jeff is excited to be a part of this board to embrace what makes New Tina’s School one of the best performing schools in Tanzania and to help it along to educate 1,000s of future students.
Sonia’s background is in soil and water engineering. She is passionate about learning different skills, working on boats, gardening, and helping REACH through fundraising. She first started volunteering for REACH Shirati in 2020 by sewing masks for fundraisers. Sonia visited Shirati in July 2024 to see New Tina’s impact on the Shirati community.
