Ngara,TZ – Education loan program opens opportunity for ERA to live the dream she has worked hard for – Sep 2025

ERA is a 22-year-old girl from Ngara district who is now able to continue her education and work towards her dream of helping others in the community.

After graduating from secondary school in 2021, ERA was selected to study community development outside her home district. Unfortunately, due to financial hardship and her parents’ separation, she could not afford to continue her studies and had to stay at home to assist with farming to support her family. In 2024,to avoid teenage marriage, she joined the local community assistance organization called SODAT by volunteering to assist with serving breakfast to the children of her community’s Mukibogoye Primary School where she had received breakfast from SODAT’s Grow-own-Breakfast (GOB) program during her primary education. Since 2024, she has been assisting with delivering the same nutritional benefits to her brothers and sisters that she received: good improvements in health, immune system, school attendance, attention in class, and academic performance.

ERA’s contribution with SODAT has earned her their assistance, so she has received a low-interest education loan through a new program that SODAT’s partner Better Lives is testing. This has enabled her to enroll in a diploma program in social welfare at Murgwanza College in Ngara district. She is now studying to live her dream of becoming a social welfare officer. She plans to continue working with SODAT and other organizations to improve families’ and children’s lives through good health, education, and long-term sustainability for a brighter future.