Maleo Stanley (17) who is our mentee at Apps and Girls and a form four student at Kondo Secondary school, has emerged the third winner at the National Competitions of Science, Technology, and Innovation (abbreviated as MAKISATU in Kiswahili) for Secondary Schools in Tanzania. Maleo brought to her school the third prize after beating ten secondary schools which were competing in the same category.
The MAKISATU Innovation Challenge under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was conducted in Dodoma on 5th – 7th March bringing together ten national innovators from the categories of Secondary schools, Informal sector, Vocational colleges, Technical (tertiary) colleges, Universities and Research and Development institutions were selected to showcase their innovations for three days. The innovators were evaluated based on various criteria including the originality, the rate of innovation, the impact to community development, the science behind, usability on community, and cost of production among others. Exhibition competition ran for two days and on the third day, the Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Prof. Joyce Ndalichako awarded the best three winners in each category.
Maleo emerged the third winner in the category of Secondary Schools after exhibiting her project called ‘Sanitary Pads Vending Machine’ which is the project she developed with her school mates, Oliver and Eshe while being mentored at Apps and Girls. With their vending machine, their aim is to provide affordable and accessible sanitary pads for girls in schools. Their idea of sanitary pads vending machine was originally presented at our tech entrepreneurship initiative; Girls Entrepreneurship Summit where they emerged first winners. They then went on participating in the Generation Unlimited youth challenge hosted by UNICEF Tanzania where despite not making it to the top runners, they spent three days in the boot camp working with other youth from across the country in building solutions for adolescents focusing on girls and marginalized youth.
MAKISATU was organized as a way to complement the current President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. John Magufuli’s Agenda on industrialization and also as a directive from the Minister for Education, Science and Technology as part of implementing the Ministry’s Instrument.