Are we willing to shift our focus, and notice people around us? Love them and care for them? At St.Peter Claver High School, in Tanzania, we are driven by the school motto:  To learn, to Love , to serve.

In learning our students know how to love and serve others. This knowledge is inculcated by a holistic approach to education. Our students are made aware that our world is surrounded by people who need care, love, support, and encouragement.

In our school, we have community service every Wednesday and on weekends. During these services, our students clean the school environment, water the plants around, and dispose of waste.

On public holidays, the Campus Ministry department organizes and plans for visits to areas that have marginalized groups. During these visits, our students and staff take some contributions in monetary form and other items like detergents, food, water, clothes, cooking oil, among others, to people who are in dire need of them.

On these visits, the students get time to interact and share their experiences with the beneficiaries. There is time to reflect on bible verses in relation to the services given.

Students offering service at an elderly home and a student carrying an infant  in Dodoma, Tanzania

Apart from that, the Alumni group from St.Peter Claver has its own association that gives service to the community. They help clean orphanages, homes for the elderly, and houses of worship: this activity (regardless of faith affiliations) promotes inter-religious tolerance. As a staff member of a Jesuit school, it is great to see these indelible values being imprinted in the hearts of our students.

A picture showing Alumni group of students after a service event at a local hospital in Dodoma, Tanzania.

A picture showing our Alumni students after cleaning a local mosque.

At St.Peter Claver, we acknowledge the cultural and national diversity in our students. Some come from different regions in the country. We have also had students in the past from neighbouring countries like Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Kenya.

Some of the students who join our school come from financially disadvantaged families. Students from these families who qualify for admission are granted partial or full scholarship.

The pictures below show students from different tribes who learned and danced a Masai and a Rwandese dance at a school event.

St.Peter Claver is also home to some marginalized groups with different disabilities like albinism. They feel loved and cared for at our school. Other students are also taught to respect and care for them as members of our community.

A group of students being attended to in the Academic office.