OLPCorps TumainiUniversity Tanzania

Tumaini University, Iringa University College

Tumaini University is a private university in Tanzania, and it consists of 6 colleges. Tumaini University's Iringa University College is the largest of those colleges, and has around 3000 students in five faculties: Theology, Law, Science & Education, Business & Economics, and Arts & Social Sciences. The college is located in Iringa town, in a rural and mountainous part of Tanzania, 502 kilometers inland from Dar es Salaam (see map below).

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-7.741227" lon="35.72578" zoom="3" width="400" height="400"> -7.741419, 35.725179 Tumaini University </googlemap>

The college is highly regarded in Tanzania, and it has a pioneering contextualized IT program that works in collaboration with local schools through an NGO Global Outreach. Through our university and through Global Outreach we are able to link with all district authorities, educational authorities, and school headmasters in the district.

Practical Session at Tumaini University's IT Program

Our Student Body

Students at IUCo's IT program come from various backgrounds. Many of us have been mathematics and science teachers, and take our specialization training in Tumaini's B.Sc. program in IT. Some of us have backgrounds in IT industry or electronics engineering, and some of us come fresh from school. We learn IT in both a theoretical and practical manner.

Our Partners

• We have, for years, been working with an NGO Global Outreach, who are dedicated to improving computer literacy and computer-based education in rural Tanzania.
• We collaborate with University of Eastern Finland (University of Joensuu), Finland, through students exchanges, staff exchanges, and joint projects.
• Each project has one or more additional partners; local schools, organizations, and/or authorities. We are familiar with those partners through our previous occupations or from other connections.

Pupils of Ukombozi primary school in front of their school building

Our OLPC Projects

We have planned, between Tumaini University's IT students, community development students, and counseling students, a number of projects in which we want to address some of the issues of the most disadvantaged children: especially of orphans and of children from poor families. Preliminary project titles are:

• Improvement of Primary Education Using Computers
• Learning Tools for Orphans in Iringa
• Analysis and Development of XO:s as a Tool for Learning at Tingatinga Primary School
• Children for HIV/AIDS-Free Nation
• Information Technology Is the Enemy of Ignorance
• Computer Literacy Project in Ukombozi Primary School
• Empowering Orphans in Rural Iringa
• Computing with Street Children at Iringa
• Changing Schoolchildren's Attitudes and Motivating Them Towards Positive Learning
• Kids in the World of Technology
• Primary School Computer Literacy in Tanzanian Context
• IT in business organisations and institutions in Southern Highland of Tanzania.