Our Mission
In July 2007, Don Stoll and Marianne Kent-Stoll, high school teachers in Santa Cruz, California, traveled to East Africa and stayed in the remote village of Bacho in Tanzania. After watching the students of the Ufani Primary School try to learn in classrooms with dirt floors, glassless windows, and empty doorframes, Don and Marianne decided to help. The villagers invited them to return with volunteers the following summer.
Don and Marianne established the Karimu International Help Foundation. Then, with the help of Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School’s student council, the Kirby School community, friends, and relatives, the Karimu Foundation raised the $17,000 needed to complete four classrooms.
Don, Marianne, and twenty-five other volunteers came home from renovating the Ufani School on June 27. Because the volunteers paid all their own travel costs, all the money raised went to buy building materials and to pay skilled local workers. The construction project and the experience turned out so well that the villagers have invited Don and Marianne to return with more volunteers in the summer of 2009. They aim to continue improving and also to expand the Ufani School, which remains too small to accommodate all the children in the village.
Many thanks to the whole community, including the Tanzania Trippers, and the Kirby Student Council for making the African Dinner a success. We are looking forward to going to Bacho on June 15th. The villagers are grateful for all of your support.
Visit our Newsletter page to learn more about our recent trip and future plans for the Ufani School.
If you wish to contribute to the Ufani School Project, please visit the How You Can Help page.
