A dining hall for 200 children
Our kitchen is finished and cooking two hot meals a day. The children still eat them outside or at their desks. We are building…
$0 raised of $25,000 0%
Ikirwa School · Midawe, Tanzania
Ambition for every child
An independent English-medium primary school on the slopes of Mount Meru, where one place in five is held for a scholar whose family could not otherwise afford it.
- 200pupils, nursery to Class 7
- 14years since we opened with 22 pupils
- 20%of places are free for children who cannot pay
- $508educates one child for a whole year
Four ways to help
Every one of these changes a child's life
$41 a month
Sponsor a pupil
Covers tuition, books, uniform, breakfast and lunch for one child from a family that cannot pay. You get their profile and letters.
Meet the scholars → Any amountGive to a project
$10 buys 50 bricks. $100 buys a window. $800 fills a classroom with desks. See exactly what we are building.
See the projects → 5,895 mClimb Kilimanjaro for us
Climb with Neeko Tours, our founder's company, and turn your summit into desks, books and school places.
How it works → 1 to 12 monthsVolunteer with us
Teachers, nurses, carpenters, gardeners and artists. Live in the village and work alongside our staff.
Roles we need →
What we are building
Current projects
Every project has a budget and a progress bar. We post photos as the walls go up.
The school kitchen
Completed in 2023 with Moyo Elimu. Two warm meals a day for every pupil, most of whom would not get them at home.
$18,000 raised of $18,000 100%
Eight classrooms and a dormitory
From four rooms and a small office in 2012 to eight classrooms and a dormitory, paid for by grassroots supporters and charity climbers.
Our story
Built on land one family gave away
I had to leave school at 14 to feed my mother and sisters. I sold milk, I worked in the tanzanite mines, and I promised myself the children of Midawe would get the education I did not.Gasper Mbise, founder and manager
Ikirwa School opened in 2012 with 22 pupils in four classrooms on land donated by Gasper's family. Today around 200 children learn in English from nursery to Class 7, eat two hot meals a day from our own kitchen, and one in five attends free as an Ikirwa Scholar. Everything since the first four rooms has been paid for by supporters like you.
Where your money goes
Small school, straight lines
There is no head office. Donations go to the school through volunteer-run partner charities, and Gasper sends photos of what they bought.
Ikirwa School Project, USA
A registered 501(c)(3) run by volunteers in Juneau, Alaska. US donations are tax-deductible.
Midawe Hope and Moyo Elimu, Europe
German associations that arrange sponsorships and funded our kitchen. European donations go through them.
GlobalGiving
Vetted charity platform for card donations from anywhere, with project reports you can read.
Published results
Our national exam results are published every year. Ask us and we will send them.
From the school
Latest updates
25 September 2026
Welcome to our new website
A new home for the school online, with clear ways to help and a page for every project.
15 July 2023
The kitchen is cooking
The first ovens arrived in July and every pupil now gets porridge and a hot lunch.
Ready to help? Start with one child.
Sponsorship is the single most useful thing you can do. It keeps a child in school for a year and lets us plan.