The Ailanga School

In the summer of 2004, 17 Seattle students and chaperones journeyed to Tanzania answering an invitation to visit Ailanga. They experienced an incredibly warm and gracious welcome as they worked and played together.

What was learned, or reaffirmed, is that we are bound together by the hopes and dreams we have for our children. The Seattle delegates fell in love with the students and staff at Ailanga, and the trip marked the start of a partnership that continues to this day.

Ailanga Lutheran Junior Seminary a is a private boarding secondary school including “forms” one through six, similar to US grades 7-12. 

Ailanga Lutheran Junior Seminary is one of the schools owned by the Meru Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. It was the aim of the diocese to establish a seminary so as to provide credible education to youth, since the future leaders of the church and the state need to be well nurtured both spiritually and professionally. The majority of the students come from the Meru area, but some travel great distance to attend the highly competitive and rigorous program.  

Ailanga is a monument to the faith and determination of the people of Meru. After many years of planning, the school opened for form one students in January 2002. A year later—relying entirely on their own resources—construction began on the on the new campus. Construction on the campus continued over the years as funds became available. At the time of the first delegation, delegates could stand in one spot and see the entire campus, consisting of a single building with only one of the three planned floors completed and no roof. Today, it takes the better part of a morning to tour the campus. Ailanga now enrolls approximately 500 students.