Students at St. Peter Claver High School in Tanzania, Nouman Abdallah Tunda and Samweli Aleck NG’ondya, share how the school is taking care of the environment.

St. Peter Claver High School is a Jesuit and co-education school that is located in Dodoma city near the area called Ihumwa in Tanzania. This education center covers 500 acres and is about 15 kilometers from Dodoma city center. St. Peter Claver High School draws students from all over Tanzania, though having a particular mission to serve student of Dodoma region, thus a school has a vision of graduating young men and women who are intellectual competent, religious, loving and also committed to doing justice and open to growth. The school also has a vision of developing their talents. Thus, the school motto is “TO LEARN, TO LOVE, TO SERVE”.

The school disposes wastes. Since the students care about the wellbeing of their environment and also want to maintain a green environment, they dispose some wastes using some different means like burning the waste materials, also other wastes are converted to biogas which is then used for cooking (in the kitchen).

The school recycles the waste whenever necessary, for instance using the dumped bottles and taking them to the industry so as to produce some new items. Also the food leftovers are taken to feed the livestock like pigs which are domesticated so as to preserve the environment.

At St.Peter Claver we plant trees, every student is given a task of planting a tree and ensure its growth by watering it every morning and evening and providing manure to it. And this ensures the development of natural beauty of the environment and provide fresh air. Our school was also recognized by Pope Francis for its due role of preserving environment by planting trees, thus it received a medal called Medglia Pontifica through its environmental ambassador, Brother Vincent, SJ.

Students participate in the community service every Wednesday so as to maintain the green environment at the school. Most activities include slashing grasses, picking papers around the school campus and picking other thrown bottles and also students water the environment making it look more wonderful.

The school is smart shopper because it purchases the clothes with good quality which last long and thus prevents unnecessary disposing of waste that comes from worn-out clothes. If the school could buy the clothes with poor quality it means that the rate of waste disposal could also be high and this could affect the wellbeing of the green environment.

St.Peter Claver has different policies for the emphasis of environmental conservation. For example, health and environment policy which gives or puts some pressure to students so that they can maintain their green environment “SAY NO TO PAPER”.

The school grows some trees which produce different kinds of fruits like mangoes, oranges and also plants some banana trees, even sunflower for producing edible oil.

The school administration gives some seminars to the students about the importance of conserving the environment and thus gives some education activities to realize a green campus dream.