Ilboru School for Children with Special Needs

Tanzanian children with hearing impairments or mental and physical special needs are often left with limited opportunities for a formal education. More than a decade ago, Sanctuary Retreats Philanthropy funded the construction of the Ilboru School for Children with Special Needs, the first primary school in Arusha designed for deaf and disabled children.

In 2016, we began an innovative literacy programme at the school, in partnership with Worldreader. This gave the children access to a large library of digital textbooks and literature, in both English and their native language of Swahili, helping to improve reading comprehension and inspire a passion for learning.

We are delighted to welcome guests at the school, so that they can meet the teachers and learn about the challenges of delivering special education to children in Tanzania.

THE SCHOOL

The primary school has proven a huge success and a beacon of hope for Arusha’s disabled community. However, upon graduation, students had no choice but to return to regular mainstream education, where teachers are not trained to deal with their unique learning needs and specialist facilities are lacking. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in a high drop-out rate.

We have amplified our support at Ilboru with the construction of a two-story, five-classroom secondary school, in partnership with Tanzania’s Ministry of Education, which is providing specially-trained teachers to work at the facility. In addition to standard academic courses, the school teaches vocational skills such as sewing to increase the children’s chances of finding employment upon graduation.