| The Jifundishe Free Library |
Jifundishe is the Swahili word for "teach yourself". The organization was founded in 2004 when local students, teachers and villagers together with foreign volunteers, identified the need for a library. In many rural areas in Tanzania, literacy rates have declined in recent years. The founding members of Jifundishe coordinated donations of supplies and resources from the United States and Tanzania and in November of 2005 opened the doors to the Imbaseni Free Library. The small, two room library provided books and gazettes and hosted specialized programs such as eye clinics, malaria prevention workshops, children's reading programs, dental clinics, and writing workshops.
Within its first years the Imbaseni Free Library also became a gathering place for local women and girls. Often, girls are not allowed to attend schools due to social norms and values compounded by financial difficulties within families. Many women in the villages surrounding the library have little or no education.
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| The Imbaseni Free Library |
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| Site of the original Imbaseni Free Library |
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| The New Jifundishe Free Library |
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| In January, 2009, Jifundishe opened the doors to a new, expanded library, The Jifundishe Free Library. Helped by a team of volunteers from the U.S., the library was ready to open to the public with many more programs and books. The new library has a community room for workshops, classes and presentations as well as an office for Jifundishe staff.
The library now hosts women's cooperative projects, evening adult literacy classes, film nights, after-school tutoring programs and educational enrichment competitions for secondary students. Local school officials have seen a dramatic rise in exam scores and overall test results since the library opened and many primary school teachers are getting teaching degrees using resources available to them at the Jifundishe Free Library.
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| William Lukuta Teaches Adult Literacy Class |
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| Students in the Library |
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