How we work

The stages of a project

1. 01

   Stage 01: Community need

   Needs reach the Foundation through the communities and schools it already works with, through local leadership, and through district government.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Impact Report; The Village Heart (2016)

   • Communities and schools
   • Local and village leadership
   • District departments
   • Field assessment
   • ARF’s existing programmes

   The hostel programme began from a documented problem: the report records girls in rural Tanzania walking between five and ten kilometres a day to reach school, with the fatigue, absence and risk that follow.

   The hostel programme
2. 02

   Stage 02: Verification and assessment

   Before design begins, the scale of the problem is checked with the people who will live with the result.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Concept Note; Mapinga Partnership Request

   • District authorities and technical officers
   • School leadership
   • Community representatives
   • Scale, urgency and who benefits
   • Existing infrastructure and risks
3. 03

   Stage 03: Project design

   The problem, the objectives and the measurable outputs are written down, along with how the work will be monitored and what it will cost.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Concept Note — intervention strategy

   • Problem and objectives
   • Outputs and intended outcomes
   • Scope and implementation plan
   • Costings
   • Safeguards and monitoring approach
4. 04

   Stage 04: Partnership and funding

   ARF works through partners, and each partner’s contribution is defined rather than blurred into a single credit. The buildings and the wells inside them are frequently funded by different organisations.

   Source: Projects IMPACT Report — ARF × Build a Life Foundation

   • Foundations and donors
   • Government agencies
   • Technical partners
   • Businesses
   • The community itself

   At Kinene, Build a Life Foundation funded the school and Drilling for HOPE drilled the well. Both are named on the project record rather than absorbed into ARF’s own account.

   The Kinene record
5. 05

   Stage 05: Implementation

   Depending on the programme this is construction, drilling, procurement, training, planting or distribution.

   Source: Projects IMPACT Report; ARF Impact Report

   • Construction and technical works
   • Procurement
   • Training
   • Farming and distribution

   The Kinene build covered six classrooms, administrative offices, washrooms, furniture, accommodation for teachers, and a solar-powered well — a school and its water supply delivered together.

   What was built
6. 06

   Stage 06: Community participation

   Communities are not recipients of a finished object. The Village Heart records villagers digging, carrying sand and laying concrete alongside contractors on the early well projects.

   Source: The Village Heart (2016)

   • Planning
   • Local coordination
   • Construction support where appropriate
   • Training
   • Maintenance and management

   The same book records the women’s groups that grew out of this — Matokayo and Jipemoyo at Kisele, who went on to run the farm.

   Hadija, who led both groups
7. 07

   Stage 07: Quality and safeguards

   Facilities are checked against what the people using them actually need, including users a standard design would leave out.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Impact Report

   • Safety
   • Accessibility
   • Water and sanitation
   • Suitability for the intended users

   The Mwarusembe hostel was delivered with laundry, modern toilets, an accessible toilet, bathrooms, beds and mattresses, electricity and a solar-powered well.

   The delivered scope
8. 08

   Stage 08: Capacity building

   Someone has to be able to run the thing after ARF leaves. School staff and community members are trained in managing and maintaining what has been built.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Concept Note — capacity building

   • School personnel
   • Community management structures
   • Farmer groups
   • Youth clubs
9. 09

   Stage 09: Commissioning and handover

   Schools and hostels are handed to the government and the community to operate. This is the point at which the building stops being the Foundation’s.

   Source: Girls’ Hostel Concept Note

   • Inspection
   • Launch
   • Handover to school or government
   • Operating responsibilities
   • Maintenance plan

   The concept note records that ARF launched and handed over the fully equipped hostel at Mwarusembe Secondary School to the government, accommodating eighty girls.

   The Mwarusembe record
10. 10

    Stage 10: Monitoring and support

    After handover, the Foundation’s stated role is ongoing support and monitoring to keep facilities maintained and useful to the students in them.

    Source: Girls’ Hostel Concept Note — monitoring and support

    • Outputs and utilisation
    • Attendance and results
    • Beneficiary feedback
    • Maintenance

    Where examination records exist, they are published as the raw distribution from necta.go.tz — no percentage change is derived from them, because the reports disagree about what those percentages are.

    The examination records
11. 11

    Stage 11: Reporting and improvement

    What is learned at one site shapes the next. The hostel design has been repeated and refined from one school to the next, and the reports are what carry that learning forward.

    Source: ARF Impact Report; Girls’ Hostel Impact Report

    • Project updates
    • Outcomes and photographs
    • Partner acknowledgement
    • Challenges
    • Next steps

    Those reports are published on this site where the Foundation holds the right to publish them, and listed with the reason where it does not.

    Reports and publications