Arusha — The Emusoi pastoral community centre at Olasiti in Arumeru district has made great strides in supporting Maasai children from Simanjiro, Ngorongoro, Monduli and Kiteto districts through secondary and college education. These include those who had failed to secure places in public secondary schools after primary education.

According to Emusoi Assistant Director Anna Shininii, children who fail to join Form One are registered at their centre for one year pre-form one course in Arithmetic, Kiswahili, English and General Knowledge before they are interviewed for Form One entry.

The centre was started in 1999 by an American Mary Knoll sister Mary Vertucii as its founding director after research in those districts had shown that many children failed to join secondary schools due to difficult environments and some dropped out even before completion of primary schools.

The centre which strives to give education opportunity to mainly Maasai girls at present houses some 85 children who are awaiting to join secondary schools and 50 more have been registered to join the centre in 2009.

Shininii called on sponsors to support the centre and give it more capacity to serve more children from the marginalized communities.