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Mrs. Matinde Nyakiha is a teacher at Gilmani Rutihinda Primary School in Kigogo settlement, Dar es Salaam. After attending the teacher training organized by the DARAJA project in July 2019, she became more aware of weather and climate information (WCI). She is also a supervisor of the Environment and Weather school club under the project.
Mrs. Matinde explains that before the training, her interest and understanding of WCI was very low, as was that of her students. During weather events students would come to school with wet exercise books due to rain and would not be able to use them to learn. Some students would not come to school for days due to the effect of weather events on their families back at home.
According to Mrs. Matinde, the DARAJA project has increased the knowledge of teachers, students and even some parents about WCI. Parents are now calling the school to ask for confirmation or further clarification of weather information shared by students. The school has agreed to set a room for students to keep their exercise books during the rainy season so that they won’t get wet; this room is used if the forecast predicts rain. Now the students can go home without worrying about their books
getting wet, and they come back the following day to continue with normal learning.
Farida Izaya, a student at Gilman school, said after being trained about WCI through DARAJA, with the support of their teachers, their Environment and Weather club is disseminating WCI through school announcements at parades, songs, drama and poetry.
“We meet twice a week as a club to discuss and plan on dissemination. We use songs, poetries, drama to inform fellow students.”
Farida tells a story of how she was able to share the forecast with her aunt, who lives close to Msimbazi River where it floods a lot.
“My aunt was living near Msimbazi River. After I became a member of environment and weather club at my school, I was elected as a leader of the club. I was always informing my family including my aunt about the forecast and the need to take precautions, if possible move out of the area. Whenever our teacher tells us about the weather I inform my aunt about it. Because of that, she has moved out of the house close to the river and is now renting a new one in a safer area within the same settlement of Kigogo.”
