Children's Village Blog
First Graduation at Gyetighi Primary School

First Graduation for Standard VII Students at Geytighi Primary School
at the Children’s Village September 7, 2007

From Nano Chatfield, Director, Board of Trustees

When I am volunteering at the Children’s Village, I often forget that I am in Africa. However, when the graduating students danced in pairs from Campi Nairobi through the gates of the Children’s Village, singing in Kiswahili and playing the drums and recorder, my eyes teared up and I had goose pimples. I felt “I am in Africa”, listening to these gentle, clear, beautiful voices and watching their bodies dancing in unison.

Everyone at the Children’s Village, our kids, staff, and volunteers congregated at the steps of our office to welcome the graduating students who sang songs to us before entering our newly built Recreation Hall. Their first song, which they wrote, thanked their teachers, Mama India, Kaka Peter and the Children’s Village.

We prepared for 2 days. Volunteers helped clean rice, shaking shallow baskets to sift through stones; peeling mounds of carrots and garlic and slicing cabbage which the Mamas cooked for lunch for our 75 guests. Volunteers decorated our new Recreation Hall with flowers, balloons and posters, saying Congratulations Standard 7; prepared Certificates and gifts for the students. In the morning our maintenance guys grabbed every chair and bench in the Children’s Village to provide seating for everyone. Earlier in the week, we had learned from the Head Teacher that the students didn’t even know what a graduation was. Boy, were they in for a surprise because India knows how to put together a celebration. Later, I learned from Stella, one of our kids, that these students had never been to a party where food was served.

Peter, our Deputy Director, was the Master of Ceremonies, orchestrating the 4 hour event and keeping everyone on schedule. There were speeches by Mr. Dafu, our new Head Teacher (Headmaster); India, the Guest of Honor; Cara Oldeani, Chairman of the School Committee; the top graduating student; and lot’s of singing from the graduates.

The students were very shy, and often didn’t smile, but I tried to make eye contact with each of them; and some smiled back. I noticed that all of their school uniforms were very worn; the girls skirts were tight around the waist and all of the boys’ zippers on their shorts broken. In 2005 Sue Rohrer and her nonprofit organization, Children of Tanzania, provided 450 school uniforms, sweaters and shoes to our students at Geytighi. (When India and I compared notes after the graduation, we both realized we need new uniforms at Geytighi!) We hope in a couple of years from now, the Standard VII students will have more self-confidence and self-esteem and will stand straighter and smile more easily at future graduations.

The students sang and danced which resonated in our Rec Hall. One song, which Peter translated for me, was about how the students have three different kinds of teachers in their lives: their first teachers are their parents; then, their teachers at school and then, the world becomes their teacher. In this song they were saying thank you to their parents and teachers, and good bye to their teachers at school.


Apparently, none of the government run schools have graduation ceremonies. In the past, Standard 7 students (which is equivalent to 7th grade in the U.S.) take their National Exams on their last day of school and that is the end of their primary school education. We wanted to honor these students for their hard work and for finishing their primary school education. This year there were 53 graduates: most of them will not continue their schooling because their parents cannot afford to pay for their secondary school education.

We are hoping to secure secondary school scholarships to the top 4 students who are in our Girls for Tanzania’s Future Club. India presented the top student a scholarship from us which provides him the opportunity to be our Playground Monitor at school; if, he does a good job this year, we will try to secure a scholarship for his secondary school education next year.

When Cara, the Chairman of the School Committee spoke, he hoped the students did their best on their National Exams. (If a student doesn’t pass the National Exam, he/she cannot continue on to secondary school.) Cara encouraged those students by saying, “It is not the end of the world if you fail, but you have to plan what you want to accomplish. Go to your teachers and ask them for help. Find out about vocational school.” Cara works for us at the Children’s Village as a driver, although India plans to promote him to Head of Maintenance because he is very clever about fixing things. Now that we are managing the Geytighi Primary School with the local School Committee, we are hopeful that with Cara’s leadership as Chairman, we will be able to make the changes we want to at this under funded and understaffed school.

We gave out presents to each of the graduates. A bag which had a notebook,pens, toothpaste and toothbrush. The top students were awarded individual prizes of clipboards and to the athletes, new soccer balls. After the ceremony was over, the students continued singing and dancing outside and our kids joined in.

Everyone at the Children’s Village was exhausted by the end of the day. It was truly a group effort as all of us pitched in together to provide this first graduation for the Geytighi School Standard VII students. We all remarked to one another how quiet and calm our kids were as they sat through the entire graduation. I think kids know when something is important and this occasion was a happy, important event which honored these hardworking students in our community and their academic achievement.