Farewell to community service icon Rwakatare

Dar es Salaam. That the Reverend Gertrude Pangalile Rwakatare was a force to reckon with in the education, religious and political circles is an open secret.

She died at the age of 69 at Rabininsia Memorial Hospital in the early hours of yesterday after a short illness.

Like any other human being, the Rev Rwakatare also had her share of positives and negatives.

But, from what she shared with The Citizen in a 2019 interview, community service was something that Rev Rwakatare took seriously. It was not amazing therefore that she beat all the odds to founded in 1995, the Mikocheni B Assemblies of God church. In 2006, she established the Bright Future Orphanage Centre for about 700 children with funding from Mikocheni B church members and international organizations.

To her, it was a calling that started way back in her teens when she volunteered to be a peer educator on social issues to fellow teenagers.

Little did she know that this would be her destiny.

“I later learnt that I was meant to serve the community because each time I saw people in pain I offered myself and service unconditionally,” the mother of one daughter and three sons, said.

It was this belief that drove her towards opening one of the largest networks of schools in Tanzania under the name of St Mary’s Schools which has campuses in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Dodoma, Mbeya and Mwanza.

“One day on my way to Nairobi, our bus reached Namanga. Something rather strange struck when I realized that a child of about four years was one of the passengers crossing the border to go to school in Kenya and worse still the boy was holding on to the conductor’s trousers crying for his mother. This was unbelievable,” she said.

The spectacle touched her and while she was in Kenya, she visited several elementary schools in Nairobi to understand why Tanzanians were flocking to Kenyan schools in such big numbers.

“I was surprised to learn that in some schools, 90 percent of the pupils were Tanzanians,” said the Rev Rwakatare.

Back in Tanzania, she was still spellbound as to why children had to be separated from their parents barely out of their diapers and learn a different culture altogether.

“Some children could not tell who the Tanzanian President was, instead they knew the then Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi,” she reminisced.

This was her window of opportunity; in January 1997, St Mary’s International Schools was born with a vision to bring back Tanzania children to their parents.

“I opened the first school at Tabata Bima, Dar es Salaam. We brought teachers from Kenya and Uganda to blend with our teachers to give Tanzanian children what they were looking for elsewhere.”

However, she admitted that the beginning was quite rocky because many people believed that the provision of education was the duty of government.

“Worse still no one believed that it was possible to start a successful English medium school because of a mindset that this was a preserve of Religious organizations and the state.” Against even her own expectations, she went on to surpass her own foresight as she went to expand to several other regions in Tanzania including Mbeya, Morogoro, Dodoma and Mwanza.

She went on to establish a teachers’ college in Tabata Dar es Salaam and plans at some point were afoot to start a university as well.

But like any other venture it has not been all rosy, because after she achieved some success many school running on the same blueprint were opened.

“Some went in for the money not knowing that it is a service that requires patience and perseverance. It is not all about profits; instead, it is about serving the community. ”

But even with her impressive track record and with her role at MP for 13 years many doubted her ability to deliver without erring.

“Ever since my early days as Personnel manager at the Tanzania Harbors, I learnt to entrust and to allow those I delegate to exercise full powers. I only come in to advise.”

Her nomination to parliament by President Kikwete was something that excited her because she felt it was something that would allow her continue with her work of educating women – something she had done for several years on an informal platform.

All this, she believed was well-deserved, because it was recognition from the government for her service to the community.

But that was not all in 2004, she was conferred a honorary Doctorate in Community Service and Education b y an American University- Vision International University.

Then she believed that though there were several efforts being made to uplift women, not many were being considered for high-end jobs.

There is a lot of awareness among the women but the opportunity to show they can is hard to come by.

She saw several role models that young women can look up to such as the then UN Deputy Secretary General, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro.