Spotlight: Neema Mndeme

We love hearing from those we empower! Here’s a note from Neema Mndeme, a teacher at Mwembe Primary School and one of our advocates for Reproductive Health and Relationships. Read more about this program HERE.

My name is teacher Neema Mndeme. I received my primary education at Lawale Primary School, which is located in Siha District. I attended secondary school at Bishop Durning High School in Arusha. For my teaching course certificate level I studied at Eckenford Collage and for my diploma level I studied at the Moshi Institute of Adult Education. I teach at Mwembe Primary School.

Training with Empower Tanzania has given us a great boost in helping children to be more self-aware and have higher self-esteem by eliminating the anxiety and fear they had because they are not afraid anymore to express the problems they face about health and relationships at school, on the street, and even at home with their family members.

Also, the training we have received has made my colleagues and I more able to help the community in one way or another by educating parents in their meetings at school in order to help children at home.

On my side also, this course has added a lot of closeness to the students and teachers. Students are free to explain even the most pressing problem that their fellow students are facing. Through the training provided by Empower Tanzania it has definitely helped children to know their basic rights, protect themselves, and make the right choices to choose good friends with positive relationship in order to reach their dreams. It has also helped them to raise their performance in studies, since students absent to school have decreased—especially during the period of Reproductive Health and Relationships. They love it so much that it is possible to encourage many girls to avoid early pregnancy.