Wilson Lengima
Wilson Lengima
While in Tanzania, we had the privilege of taking part in wildlife safaris in northern Tanzania. We were struck with the sight of the noble Maasai who live a smi-nomadic life among the animals of the Serengeti. As we traveled along in all terrain vehicles, binoculars trained on elephants and zebras, we were captivated by children and youth watching over their herds of cattle and goats. Some held out a hand for water. Wilson told us, “I was one of those children.”
Despite being an orphan with no money for tuition or a school uniform, he dared to dream of attending school. He yearned passionately to learn what school children had learned, to “know what they knew”. Now many years later he has nearly completed a Masters Degree in Community Development. He’s a strong leader of vision now as he was when we met him at the university . During Tim’s stint as visiting professor in 2010/2011, there was a student strike over scholarship shortfalls. Wilson, elected by his peers as class representative, was a vital influence in a peaceful resolution between university students, Tanzanian government officials and university administrators. Through this event and others, Wilson’s older brothers, who once forbade him to attend school, have seen that Wilson is empowered to interact with a world that is fast closing in around them. These same brothers are now influential in the push for a village secondary school.
What was Wilson’s journey through education like? At age fifteen he ran away from home to attend primary school, secondary school, and then university with the help of first a Maasai sponsor and then an American sponsor. I imagine that Wilson’s sponsors saw in him then what we see now – passion, intelligence, humbleness of heart, courage, and vision.
The boys and girls of Wilson’s village need hope for the future and a way out of suffering and poverty. The village’s solution is to build a school. Wilson, his wife Rose, the elders of his home village, took steps to realize this dream. One of those steps was to invite us to their home village and ask for our involvement. Soon after Angelika Wohlenberg, a 30 year medical missionary in Tanzania who has built two schools, came on board. She serves as an in-country advisory board member to our U.S. non-profit, Maasai School 121. Since that time, with the help of several churches, many individuals, and now a small German non-profit, the dream has been becoming reality. The school opened January, 2015 with the first two buildings and the first class. This series of events are, in Wilson’s words, “God’s plan for eradicating ignorance from the Maasai community”.
Wilson said to us, “I started school at fifteen years old. …I saw that with education I could help myself. And later I understood I can help not only myself and my family, I can help my village and my country.”
We invite you to stand with Wilson, Rose, and their community as they continue making the dream a reality.