Education is central to development. It is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality and lays a foundation for sustained economic growth.

Tanzania has put education at the center of its National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty with the aim of ensuring equitable access to quality primary and secondary education for boys and girls, universal literacy among women and men; and the expansion of higher, technical and vocation education. Classrooms, furnishings and resources are all vital if equitable access and the physical learning environment is to be improved.

Textbooks for Tanzania is a Nebraska Synod-based project directed at providing valuable learning resources. Working closely with Tanzanian secondary educational leaders in the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, the Textbooks for Tanzania project seeks to equip Tanzanian classrooms with necessary up-to-date textbooks to contribute toward improved learning outcomes.

The ratio of textbooks to students at the Lutheran secondary schools is 1:10. It is not uncommon for a class of forty students to have one book. Tanzanian families place a high value on education in hopes that their children will have a better life. Textbooks purchased through this program are the textbooks required by the Tanzanian government for secondary school education. Each gift of $10 places a desperately needed book in a Tanzania classroom.