Dream Big School

Dream Big School Tanzania Africa

The Dream Big School is located in Fumagila Village, 16km from Mwanza City, Tanzania, Africa. Following the Canada Place sail restoration in 2010, material was salvaged and donated to the organizers to be re-used as a building material. This decreased both the financial and environmental cost of the project. Supported by the Tanzanian government the school will serve as a model for future development across Tanzania with a holistic balance of sustainable living, a new integrated teaching curriculum and comprehensive teacher development and training.

Appropriately the sail fabric is being used (much as it is at Canada Place) as a protective awning to shield people from the elements as they gather to learn, perform and celebrate their culture. Long a natural meeting place, Canada Place is honored to be a part of this central element at the school.

“Pull up a tire, learn something.”

The school is constructed using sustainable building practices and is powered with solar energy while employing fuel energy management. Re-used tires are used for outdoor classroom chairs and can also be used to teach arithmetic. The two building facility also uses the shipping container employed to bring all the materials to Africa as a core structural component.

Dream Big School: What’s in a name?

The name was carefully chosen to serve three roles:

1) A reminder of the projects’ origin as a simple idea that grew

2) An inspiration to the students and community leaders in Tanzania

3) A challenge for anyone who has been touched by this grassroots project to strive for their own big dreams.

Canada Place was proud to work with lead partners BC Institute of Technology to profile the project (then called Project Tunjifunze) and Canada Day at Canada Place 2011 a free family event in Vancouver, BC and the largest Canada Day celebration in the nation outside of Ottawa.

View the Dream Big School Tanzania photos.