Hanga is a small village in southern Tanzania, in the region of Ruvuma, two days from Dar es Salaam: this is where the Benedictine Abbey is located ("Ora et labora" is their motto in Latin, “Pray and Labour” in English, “SALA NA KAZI” in Swahili).
“Elimu ni mali”, that is to say, “Education is a virtue”. This short but significant phrase in Kiswahili, can be frequently seen on the stones bearing the name of the village school in Tanzania. Consequently, an awareness of the importance of education is very much alive in this country, even though the objective conditions certainly do not make its realization easy.
The considerable support of the "CORRADO E BRUNO MARIA ZAINI" FOUNDATION is very much in accordance with this principle. It has entirely financed the construction of a new dormitory for the children who attend the school of Hanga but come from faraway villages. The realization of this complex of buildings is a step forward of fundamental importance, favoring the education process in rural and disadvantaged zones where the lack of adequate infrastructure further penalizes an educational system that is deficient from many points of view.
The old structure, too small and inadequate, was no longer able to meet the new needs of pre-primary and primary schools, thus preventing it from fully exploiting the potential of the educational complex, which is actually "avant-garde" in its Tanzanian context. The new dormitory enables children who are not resident of the village of Hanga to attend the school on a continuous basis and to have comfortable accommodation for the entire school period.
At the present moment, 160 children are housed in the dormitory, while a further 110 remain (but obviously with more space) in the old dormitory.
