The Regional Commissioner, Mr Daniel Ole Njolai inaugurated the extension of the Mpanda Girls Secondary School on Saturday July 9, 2011 in Mpanda District, Rukwa Region.
The extension project was funded by the Japanese Government through UNHCR with aim of contributing to a conducive learning environment at the school as well as a way to thank host community for their generosity in hosting the Newly Naturalised Tanzanian formerly Burundian refugees from the ‘Old Settlements’ Katumba and Mishamo.
Japanese assistance to Mpanda Girls Secondary School is funded through a scheme within the supplementary budget of the Japanese financial year 2010/2011 for Humanitarian Assistance for African Countries.
A total of 30 billion Japanese Yen (equivalent to approximately 0.37 billion USD or 588bn/-) was provided to 31 sub-Saharan countries through various international organizations.
Within this scheme, the Japanese Government has provided 3 million USD for the UNHCR Tanzania refugee operations for the year 2011.
Speaking at the ceremony the Regional Commissioner of Rukwa Region who was the Guest of Honour expressed his gratitude to UNHCR for improving the outlook of this remarkable school and added that it is through such efforts that the student will be comfortable in learning process and will also increase their moralities of studying since the environment are conducive.
He also advised the student and the teachers to build the culture of maintaining the dormitories in order to allow other generation to use the dormitories.
“On behalf of the government, we are so happy for the rehabilitation of Mpanda Girls Secondary School, Thanks to UNHCR for its support since they came in Mpanda. Hopefully the students will use the dormitories effectively in order to allow other generation to benefit.
“The government is putting more efforts to education in order to have different scholars who will continue building the nation. It’s better to invest in education rather than other things which are unnecessary,” he said.
UNHCR Head of Office in Mpanda Mr Mamo Mulusew shared the aim for the UN Refugee Agency to engage in rehabilitation of Mpanda Girls Secondary School as he indicated that “The support of UNHCR and the international community to projects like this has a big support to the community and the school as well.
Mpanda Girls Secondary School project is one of the several projects that UNHCR had the pleasure of taking part in mobilising funds for, selection of implementing partners and the monitoring of the execution of its components”.
In relation to that he, expressed his appreciation to REDESO – the NGO responsible for the direct implementation of the project. He said Mpanda Girls Secondary School rehabilitation is the 2nd project that REDESO completed within the past 12 months, the other one being the Urwira dispensary in Mpanda.
He finalised by assuring the government that UNHCR will continue to support the local administration in the upcoming process of reintegration of the recently naturalised refugee population within Tanzanian communities. The process of the selection and implementation of community support programs will always be done in cooperation with the authorities in the region.
In his remarks at the ceremony, the Project Manager REDESO, Mr Dickson Maiga informed the public that the construction and rehabilitation of the school was in four phases. One phase is finished and it cost 441,498,958/-. Other phases will start soon.
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