The Scholarships Story
Helping girls complete their secondary education is at the core of our mission, because we believe that educating girls is the greatest investment in the world. Girls that finish secondary school have healthier families, higher incomes, and better educated children. Girls in the Mara region face a lot of obstacles to graduate. We started the Willmann Scholarship Fund to help gifted girls by putting them in an environment where they can live up to their potential.
Part 1: An Uphill Climb
Extra Expectations & Pressure
Girls in the Mara region, and much of Africa, face a mix of social, economic, and health-related challenges that can stand in the way of their education. In some villages, girls may have to walk up to 2 hours to get to secondary school. In the hilly Bukwaya area, that literally means up hill both ways. Depending on their family's circumstances, a girl may have to make that journey without breakfast and often after she's already done chores. Physical exhaustion often sets in before she sits down for the day and is expected to learn. After returning home, she is likely to face responsibilities that are prioritized over studying.
Families that face severe economic hardship may expect her to stay at home to work instead of attending school, often prioritizing school for boys in the family. Even worse, a family may arrange for a girl to be married before she even graduates secondary school. For girls that do stay in school, it is common to miss school due to a lack of menstrual products and adequate facilities at school. Missing school monthly and not having the resources like text books to self teach makes it nearly impossible to learn.
Boarding Schools
Girls that are given an opportunity to attend boarding schools in Tanzania are significantly more likely to complete secondary school. By being able to stay at school during the week, girls are placed in an environment where they can focus on their studies. They are also less likely to face harmful situations while walking to school. Many boarding schools also have more resources for students to study outside of the classroom.
Starting the Scholarship Fund
In 2019, TDS launched the Willmann Scholarship Fund in honor of longtime donors Rose and Karl Willmann. Rose was an educator that specifically worked with gifted children in the Madison, WI area. The scholarship fund was started with the intention of helping exceptionally motivated and gifted girls that could not afford to attend boarding schools due to their economic circumstances.
Part 2: Four Year Commitment
A Meaningful Connection
The Willmann Scholarship is able to provide girls with a guaranteed scholarship to attend all four years of secondary school at their choice of one of three boarding schools. This is made possible through the generosity of donors that commit to fund a girl for four years. Because of this commitment, it allows a meaningful connection to be made between a scholarship recipient and their sponsor. Since 2019, many girls and sponsors have taken advantage of this one-to-one connection to connect with one another through letters. The exchange not only makes the sponsorship more personal, but helps build confidence in a girls' ability to speak English and share her personal thoughts.
Selection Process
Since 2019, TDS has been able to regularly recruit enough donors to provide 10-12 scholarships annually. There are many more girls in the Mara region that are deserving of the opportunity than the scholarship fund can provide for. In order to ensure an equitable opportunity, our partners manage a multi-step selection process. In addition to primary school performance and exam scores, girls are interviewed to be given an opportunity to share their ambitions and challenges. Families are also interviewed to ensure that a girl has support to stay in school but is not able to pay for the cost of tuition and boarding. Those that are selected are able to attend on of three boarding schools that have been vetted to be both safe and high-performing.
Part 3: Generational Change
Top Performers & Graduates
With 40 girls currently enrolled in school and another 18 that have graduated since starting the program in 2019, we consider the program a remarkable success. Not only have more than 95% of the girls that started in the program stayed enrolled, many are top performers. The vetted boarding schools are top notch and competitive. Multiple times a scholarship recipient has finished top of her class or received the highest exam scores. Compared to girls at the public schools where they would have attended, the performance difference is marked. We can see the difference that the scholarship program is having by putting these gifted girls in an environment where they can thrive and achieve their potential.
Support a girl
The current cost of a providing an annual scholarship, uniforms, bedding, menstrual and hygeine supplies, and other educational materials is $900. We ask that donors wanting to provide a scholarship to commit to funding that scholarship for four years. Donations can be provided annually or you can sign up for a recurring monthly $75 donation online.
