The Nanyaro Foundation | Kingse Safaris' Community School in Karatu
A Kingse Safaris guest with two pupils outside the community school in Karatu, Tanzania

Conservation With Purpose

The Nanyaro Foundation

Our community school in Karatu, Tanzania, and the long-term commitment behind it.

The Same Operation, Pointed at Something Lasting

Kingse runs on a simple promise. The people who plan your safari are the same people who run it on the ground. The Nanyaro Foundation is the other half of that promise. Peter Nanyaro, who runs everything on our side in Tanzania, grew up in Karatu, in the green highlands below the Ngorongoro rim. There's a small community school there he's been part of for years, and the foundation is how Kingse puts its weight behind it.

This isn't a one-off donation or a logo on a website. It's a long-term commitment to one place and the children who learn there. We named it after Pete because it's his community and his home, and the whole thing was as much his idea as ours.

Where Things Stand Today

The school teaches the youngest children for now, a pre-primary class and grades one and two. The land it sits on belongs to Kingse, so the foundation isn't building on borrowed ground. Whatever goes in stays with the school, for good.

The things most schools take for granted, power, clean water, enough classrooms, a safe way to get there, aren't all in place yet. That's exactly where we start.

Children inside a classroom at the Nanyaro community school in Karatu

What We're Building, In Order

We're not promising all of it at once. We're doing it in the order that actually matters, starting with the things everything else depends on.

1
Power and waterConnect electricity and clean running water to the school. Lighting, sanitation, a kitchen that works. Nothing else functions properly until this does, so it goes first.
2
ClassroomsAdd buildings one at a time, so the school can hold more children and more year levels as it grows.
3
Getting kids to schoolMany of the children walk a long way, and that distance is the reason some of them miss out. A school bus of our own, so it stops being a barrier.
4
Growing the gradesExtend the school year by year, out toward grade six, so a child who starts in pre-primary can keep learning without ever having to leave the community.
A Kingse Safaris guest meeting a child during a visit to the Karatu community school

You'll Probably Meet Them

On many of our Tanzania trips the road through Karatu is already part of the route, usually around day five, between the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. Guests who'd like to are welcome to stop in at the school, meet the kids, and see exactly where the foundation's work goes.

There's no staged voluntourism and no pressure. Just an honest look at the community behind the safari. Plenty of guests have ended up helping out after a visit, in their own way and on their own terms. That part is always their call, never built into the trip.

Jackson Potter and Peter Nanyaro on safari in the Serengeti, with a herd of elephants behind the vehicle

Why We're Doing This

We spend our working lives showing people the wild side of Tanzania. The communities at the edge of those parks are part of the same story, and Karatu is Pete's. Putting something back where he's from felt less like charity and more like finishing a sentence we'd already started.

Want to be part of it?

If you're travelling with us and want to include a school visit, just tell us when we're planning your trip. If you'd like to support the foundation directly, get in touch and we'll tell you honestly what's needed and where it goes.

Get In Touch