{"id":26809,"date":"2026-08-08T16:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/information-letter-40-die-neue-sekundarschule-tukuta-fuer-maedchen\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:13:09","slug":"information-letter-40-die-neue-sekundarschule-tukuta-fuer-maedchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/information-letter-40-die-neue-sekundarschule-tukuta-fuer-maedchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Information letter #40, The new Tukuta Secondary School for Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Empowering women within Maasai culture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Pupils at a primary school enthusiastically show off their new exercise books and pens<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

In addition to promoting school education, particularly in remote areas of northern Tanzania, empowering women within Maasai culture is a key focus of upendo `s work. We cannot, and must not, steer the associated cultural developments from faraway Europe; these must be initiated and carried out by committed local people. They are intimately familiar with the culture of their fellow people and are accepted and valued by them. We are delighted that, through our partner organisation ECLAT, we have competent and committed local people who want to help their fellow community members escape poverty and underdevelopment. In this newsletter, we report on various aspects of ECLAT\u2019s work with women, as well as on its family planning campaigns.<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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The new Tukuta Secondary School for Girls<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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The girls at Tukuta Secondary School are delighted with their new school<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

A school for girls only may seem outdated to us, but in the Simanjiro District it is exactly the opposite. The new secondary school offers girls from the district the chance to continue their education in a safe environment after they have completed primary school. The boarding school allows girls from across the district to live and learn there, no matter how far away their homes are. Among the Maasai, formal education is traditionally regarded as of little importance, particularly for girls. This school therefore serves as a highly visible symbol, even to the wider community, that secondary education is now available to girls in the district. After less than a year of construction, the first students were able to begin classes at the start of this year. We celebrated the official opening of the school shortly afterwards in May. It was moving to see how enthusiastically the girls embraced their opportunity to study at Tukuta Secondary School. They are well aware that, traditionally, they would otherwise have been forced into marriage. We were particularly touched that even some of the fathers openly expressed their support for their daughters\u2019 secondary education; that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Construction work on the school is continuing; in the coming weeks, we will open the multi-purpose hall, which is to serve as a canteen and a venue for communal events. And the necessary buildings must be completed by next January so that the girls in the new intake classes can start lessons at the beginning of the new school year.<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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Making Sanitary Pads \u2013 a new Project for a Women\u2019s Group<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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The leader of a women\u2019s group explains the different types of soap that her group produces and sells<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Many girls and young women stay away from school during their monthly periods because they do not have access to sanitary products. As a result, they miss a significant proportion of lessons during the course of the year, meaning that many are unable to keep up with their schoolwork. Over the past few months, ECLAT has formed a new women\u2019s group that aims to produce and market reusable sanitary pads. Some of the women learnt sewing at ECLAT\u2019s Young Women Training Centre (\u2018Tailoring and Textile Design\u2019). For the time being, they will be producing sanitary pads in a room at the ECLAT Women\u2019s Centre, as the Tanzanian government, for understandable reasons, requires compliance with high hygiene standards. The leaders and mentors of ECLAT\u2019s women\u2019s programme will provide the women with intensive training over the coming months in the production and marketing of sanitary pads at an affordable price. There is certainly a great need amongst girls and young women in schools and villages. However, ECLAT will continue to support and advise the group for quite some time even after it is \u2018standing on its own two feet\u2019.<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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ECLAT\u2019s Family Planning Campaigns are proving effective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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An interested audience at the family planning campaign in Lemooti<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Since 2022, ECLAT has been running family planning campaigns in the villages of Simanjiro and neighbouring districts. Traditionally, Maasai men leave the care and upbringing of children to the women. As infant mortality is low nowadays, women often have so many children that they can barely look after them, let alone provide them with clothing, healthcare or even an education. Women therefore ask for family planning options, whereas men take pride in having many children. Family planning campaigns are therefore aimed primarily at men. ECLAT raises awareness of the risks associated with rapid population growth in view of limited environmental resources, and explains the options available for family planning. The involvement of the elders, as traditional opinion leaders, and their support contribute significantly to the acceptance of the campaigns. Individual medical advice and treatment are provided at local health centres: the Tanzanian government makes family planning resources available free of charge. Surveys carried out last year in the villages where these campaigns were held have already shown that public awareness of family planning options has increased significantly, as has acceptance of them. A further survey carried out at the health centres earlier this year has already shown a lower birth rate in those villages compared with those not covered by the campaigns. This is proof to us that we are on the right track and a reason to continue our efforts towards sustainable population growth among the Maasai in Tanzania.<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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What Education means to a young Maasai Woman<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Magdalena Porokwa<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

In October 2024, the completion of the pilot project for the Young Women\u2019s Training Centre was celebrated with a great party. One of the graduates at the time was Magdalena Gabriel Porokwa. She is now 24 years old and still lives in Emboreet.
\nSpeaking about her school career, Magdalena explained that she attended secondary school in Emboreet up to Form 4 (secondary school ordinary level). She would have liked to stay on longer, but her grades were not high enough, so she left school in 2020. She was delighted when, in 2023, she was given the opportunity to continue her training at ECLAT\u2019s new Young Women\u2019s Training Centre. She enrolled on the \u2018Tailoring and Textile Design\u2019 course and learnt, amongst other things, how to sew and design clothes. She proudly reported that she finished the course as the third-best student.
\nToday, she is essentially self-sufficient thanks to her sewing work. She makes new clothes to order and carries out repairs. She is grateful that, upon completing her training, she was given a sewing machine to help her get started. She also sells shoes and accessories. However, she pointed out that attracting customers is difficult for her.
\nShe relies on word-of-mouth recommendations, as she cannot afford her own business premises.
\nShe currently still lives with her father and stepmother. Her biological mother passed away some time ago. One day, she too would like to start a family of her own. She is determined to choose her own husband, a decision her father has accepted. The fact that she is currently unmarried and has no children is not an issue for her. For now, she wants to establish a life of her own.
\nWe wished her every success in her future endeavours and will certainly continue to follow the direction she chooses and the path she takes.<\/p>\n

The interview was conducted by Dr Karsten Faulhaber on 23 February 2026<\/div><\/div>\n

Fotos: Karsten Faulhaber, Fred Heimbach
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In addition to promoting school education, particularly in remote areas of northern Tanzania, empowering women within Maasai culture is a key focus of upendo `s work. We cannot, and must not, steer the associated cultural developments from faraway Europe; these must be initiated and carried out by committed local people. They are intimately familiar with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26809"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26825,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26809\/revisions\/26825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.upendo-entwicklungsprojekte.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}