About Lucas – In His Words
Finally, in 2004 I completed secondary school. I was working for GOSESO from 2007 up to 2009 as a project assistant. In 2008 I met with my friends Rai, Tamrika, Dagny and John (from Utah) in Kiganza. These friends promised me to help with big things. I love these friends; they have good hearts. One day I told my friend Rai about the life of many African people to the village. Sometimes they are passing exams, but missing the opportunity to go to secondary school because they have no school fees. Rai, she is so very sad. She decided to support 6 children to attend secondary school. In 2009, she added another 6 children of secondary school age. About Rai
By the end of 5 weeks in the village, Rai had formed some lovely friendships and alliances in the community. She decided to offer six scholarships for four years of secondary school to children in need. With the help of her friend, Lucas Lameck of Mwanga, she was able to select six children in the village who were in need of educational assistance. All of the children are from single-parent families and live in extreme poverty, yet have a high level of motivation to complete secondary school and dream of going to high school. Without these scholarships, the children would not have the opportunity to continue their education and would thereby start working full time at the early age of 12 with no chance for higher education or higher level careers. In the summer of 2009, Rai returned to the village to visit the six children. She returned with books, school supplies and mosquito nets that were either donated or purchased with monetary contributions from friends in Salt Lake City, Utah, Boulder and Golden, Colorado and Susice, Czech Republic. The children were so excited about the new reading materials. They created their own library in the home of one of the young boys. They also created their own system for checking out books to ensure that the books would be well cared for and returned for others to use. By the end of this visit, Rai wanted to select six more children to sponsor through four years of secondary school. This time, she and Lucas looked to the neighboring village, Mgaraganza. In our quest to find students in need, Rai was approached by the local community about a school building project. The son of the village chief mentioned their great need for a secondary school. This chief was the leader of five nearby villages, none of which have a secondary school. Having just read both Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood, Rai innocently and eagerly said she would love to help and believed she could at all costs! For the next week, Rai and Lucas met with the village chief and the community council to discuss plans for the school – size, location, project timeline, and other logistical issues. Additionally, during the course of these meetings the council selected the six children that were most in need of scholarships. They chose children who had passed their secondary school entrance exams and were motivated to continue learning but due to various circumstances – primarily lack of funds – could not continue with their education. All six of these children only have one parent to support their family.
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My name is Lucas Lameck Suku. My mother’s name is Meriselina Pogonya and my father’s name is Lameck Suku Mkohozi. My father and my mother were born 8 children. I’m the fifth child born from my mother and my father. I was born in 1985 at Maweni Hospital in Kigoma region so that I am twenty five years old. I have two younger brothers – their names are Kefa and Maiko. Also I have three older brothers. Their names are Charles, Julias and Isaya. Also, I have one sister – her name is Sofia. Other sister she died with Malaria disease – her name is Malta.
Together, two inspired friends – Lucas and Rai – came together to establish a foundation that would empower children and ultimately a community through access to education. The two co-founders brainstormed names for their “little” endeavor and after pondering over several ideas, settled on Project Wezesha (Project Empower). They established a purpose and a partnership and are well on their way to making some dreams come true! By July 2010, we had raised over $11,000 for phase one of our big project! In January 2015, the school opened. Dive into the blog posts and see how Project Wezesha continues to work with the communities surrounding Kigoma town.